Kuroko Tetsuna's Basketball
by abbylovesmyungsoo
Summary: What if Kuroko Tetsuya, the phantom sixth man of Teiko Middle School, is a girl? Badass-ery, a bit of action, comedy, love, and a hint of harem ensues. I do not own the image. All credits goes to the artist. :)
1. Summary

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kuroko no Basuke. All credits go to Fujimaki Tadatoshi. (^_^)b

**Rated T** just to be safe.

* * *

**Summary**

What if Kuroko Tetsuya, the phantom sixth man of Teiko Middle School, is a girl? Badass-ery, a bit of action, comedy, love, and a hint of harem ensues.

* * *

**Notes:**

(1) Fem!Kuroko. Hair as short as the real Kuroko's hair. You'll know why soon.

(2) AkaKuro as main pairing, with one-sided KagaKuro, KiKuro, MidoKuro.

(3) Murasakibara likes Kuroko, maybe even love her, but as a sister only. If he ever gets to the suggestive point, it will be because he's so freaking innocent. If you know what I mean.

(4) Side pairings will include AoMomo, and HyuugaAidaKiyoshi love triangle.

(5) Kuroko's a C, I guess. If Riko's a B, and Satsuki's a D, I thought it would be best for Kuroko to have not-too-big-and-not-too-small boobs. (I thought of making her boobs bigger than Satsuki before, but then if I do that, Aomine will fall for her. So, nope. T_T)

(6) Kuroko likes to tease guys (such as Midorima, Izuki, and Furihata) _a bit_ in this fanfic. Teasing as in "oh-he's-so-friggin'-cute-and-shy-now-lemme-tease-him."

(7) Akashi ain't the possessive madman here; he still has love for authority and absoluteness, but you know, not too much. Especially when he's still the original one back in Teiko arc.

(8) Guys who'll fall for Kuroko's charms and badass-ery (not the same way as Akashi, Kagami, Kise, and Midorima tho) will include Izuki (oh he fell for her teasing), Furihata (ditto), Takao (^O^d), Himuro (he'll admire her :3), Mayuzumi (I won't reveal any for now), Sakurai (ohhhh he's got a crush), and Kasamatsu (tons of blushing when she's around).

(9) Other guys who "seem" like pervs/ladies' men including Haizaki, Moriyama, Tsugawa, Hanamiya, and most of the Seirin boys (who I love so much), will be pervs here. You'll see.

That's all for now. I'll update these "facts" soon on my author's note in every chapters! See you guys soon and let me know what you think. \\(^o^ \ )


	2. Preview

**Preview**

* * *

"Kurokocchi~" Kise Ryouta chirps with a huge grin. He's the model who is always followed around by fan-girls, but he is actually the one fan-boying right now.

"What is it Kise-kun?" Kuroko Tetsuna asks politely, sipping onto her beloved vanilla milkshake.

"You're so pretty!" The blond says with a wider grin. "Sometimes I forget that you're a guy."

"Eh?" The blunette pretends to not hear what the blond said.

"Oi, Kise! Are you trying to say that Tetsu's girly!?" A tanned boy exclaims. "He's manlier than you, idiot!" And it goes on and on. The energetic tanned boy named Aomine Daiki turns to Kuroko. "Tetsu, don't be affected by whatever this moron says, okay?"

"Hai." The blunette says with a stoic face. She mentally thanked her close friend. For now, she was told not to reveal that she's in fact a girl, not even Aomine, or all of the boys in the Generation of Miracles.

The only ones who know about the truth is Momoi Satsuki, Nijimura Shuzo, the Teiko's basketball club coach and adviser, the Principal, her parents, an old friend of hers and…

"As expected, Oha-Asa is right. Your luck is very low today, Kise." Midorima Shintarou. It's the tsundere who's not supposed to know about her real identity. Kuroko was skeptic about the green-haired guy knowing the truth at first, but she realized that Midorima is not that kind of person. Maybe.

"Ah, Midorimacchi, please stop with that horoscope stuff for now, please." Kise tries to shoo Midorima away. It doesn't work, though. Unfortunately, the green-haired was keeping a close eye over Tetsuya Kuroko. Or Tetsuna, for that matter; not that he cares or anything. Ah, tsunderes!

"Ah~ Kuro-chin can I have some milkshake? Please~" A purple-haired giant stepped in.

Kise and Aomine choked on their saliva.

"Murasakibara, you can't possibly request for something like that." Midorima pushed his glasses up his nose. "Just so you know, it will be an indirect kiss if you do so."

"For once, I agree with you, four-eyes!" Aomine laughs out loud. Midorima just sighed in response.

"Eeeeh? So what? After all, he's a guy like me. It won't matter, right, Kuro-chin?" Murasakibara, you innocent giant, you!

_As I thought, this is going to be a pain. Not like I care about her or anything._ Ah, tsunderes!

* * *

Kagami Taiga cannot believe it. Kuroko is a girl. _Like, seriously!? How can a girl last long on a court full of men like that!?_

"S-so, it's true then…" The coach of Seirin basketball team Aida Riko cannot believe it either. The rumors about the phantom sixth man were true. And the other rumor, about that phantom to be female, too. It was all true.

The rest of the Seirin boys suddenly gasped out of pure surprise and delight. Their cute new recruit is a girl after all!

"I knew this will happen, after all. I apologize for not telling you immediately. I thought it was obvious." Kuroko simply explains. Then she thought, _is it the length of my hair, perhaps?_

_How can I not notice? _All the people in the room thought in unison. _Th-this girl's more or less a C-cup! How can I!?_

Suddenly, the whole team blushed madly and burst into tears of joy, except for Kagami and the coach. "Ah, we have such a cute kouhai~" All of them began to reach for Kuroko to embrace her, but an ominous aura in the opposite direction started to flow. They halted.

"C-coach! Let us explain!" Hyuuga tries to calm the coach down. But he's a few seconds too late. After all, perverts deserve no mercy, especially pedophiles. Perhaps 'pedophiles' isn't a fair word to describe them. Or not.

"Second years, training menu tripled." The coach says with a suspiciously evil smile. "If you complain, I'll have it quadrupled."

_Eeeeh!? What about the first years!?_ The pedophiles thought in unison. It's either amazing or creepy how they can all think alike.

"We're spared." Fukuda whispers to Furihata and Kawahara. The other two can't help but agree.

Kagami watched as the team began their training of demise. _Good thing I'm not like them_. He thought. He slowly turns to look at Kuroko. He's still quite baffled about the discovery about the weak-looking person's real gender. _Generation of Miracles, huh? If this girl's strong enough to surprise me, what more if it's the other members?_ He reflects. Somehow, he has a feeling that, this girl will show a lot of surprises more than what the Generation of Miracles can show. _It's a girl who didn't just fought men in official games, but won against them in every single one of it. The first one._

* * *

"Tetsuna." A certain redhead with a Rakuzan jersey jacket draped on his shoulders pronounces.

The blunette, in her Seirin's training attire, looks back at her former captain. "Yes, Akashi-kun?"

"In our match…" The redhead hesitates for while. He wasn't sure what he wanted. In fact, he _never _knew. He may look like a man of certainty and confidence, but deep inside, he never knew what he wanted. A spoiled brat wrapped in a sorry excuse of administration. The blunette started to feel concerned and at the same time, annoyed, as she has never seen the redhead hesitate before. But somehow, she knew he'll say something like, "You'll lose." There he goes. He manages to say something unnecessary. And completely annoying.

"Akashi-kun." Numerous veins pop out of the blunette's forehead. "As much as I hate to tell you this," _Since I've said it so many times to so many people with both normal and abnormal hair colors already. _"But, you'll never know what will happen until the game ends. And I, Kuroko Tetsuna swear by the death of a thousand scissors that Seirin will win against Rakuzan. Against all odds."

The redhead is somehow surprised. He didn't expect her to swear by the death of a thousand scissors. His mouth forms a smirk, he finally regains his composure. "Is that so?" _You have managed to surprise me again, Tetsuna. _"I'll look forward to what Seirin has to show, then."

A few seconds pass, yet they remain standing where they are, exchanging looks of longing and worry. The wind started to move the leaves and sway the trees, and the two's perfect hairdos, as seconds started to slip away slowly.

Both of them wanted to say something more. But they didn't. _Not yet_. They thought.

* * *

**A/N: Hoho. Yo, guys! I managed to write a preview. Yes, I did this since, (1) You guys must want more than notes. (2) AkaKuro is the main pairing but I'm starting the story in Seirin arc which means, AkaKuro won't have as much appearances together for the first few chapters. Again ****_won't have as much_****. Not ****_won't have_****. There's a huge difference and you guys must know that. :) **

**And with this update, I'm so sorry to say that the next update will be quite delayed because… Exams week is coming! :( Please bear with me guys. **

**Advanced thank you for your understanding and support! :D Keep safe, guys~**


	3. 1: First Day in Seirin High School

**Warnings: **Uh, some profanities here and there. A very judging Kuroko-sama. That's OOC, right? Plus, she talks to herself a lot here. I warned ya guys! (^o^)

* * *

**Chapter 1**

* * *

_The Teiko Junior High School Basketball club—an incredibly strong team with over one hundred members and three consecutive championship wins. Amongst their brilliant record, was the generation of five prodigies known as the "Generation of Miracles." However, there was a strange rumor concerning them. Despite being relatively unknown and lacking a game record, there was one more member recognized by the five prodigies. A phantom sixth man. Or woman._

* * *

A new life awaits Kuroko Tetsuna at Seirin High School. She has always wished for a fresh start in the past few months, wanting to have a breather ever since tragedies started to occur in her last few weeks in Middle school_. It's finally here._ She thought.

Kuroko, with a book in hand, decided to dress as a guy for the meantime. She'll continue to until she gets accepted in the basketball club here in Seirin. She can't continue fooling her soon-to-be teammates until the very end, though. In Teiko, she had managed to bamboozle the rainbow gang and the others until the end of their freshman year. But, no more. She can't afford to cause any more trouble, or more like, trigger other people to unintentionally cause trouble. Like how the Generation of Idiots did.

She remembers it all clearly. Aomine Daiki felt angry and betrayed and scowled on every people there. _"Who else knew!? Satsuki!? Why didn't you tell me!?"_ But the next day he has completely accepted it, saying he dedicated some time to think about everything. The mega-bags under his eyes were proof. He said he realized it was better that Kuroko's a girl instead of a 'girly guy'. Kise Ryouta cried tears of joy then ran straight to the rooftop and shouted, _"Kurokocchi is a girl! I'M NOT GAAAAAAY!" _Distracting everyone in Teiko, they all thought, _who knew this model is actually an airhead_. Not to mention distracting AND enraging his crazy fan girls, rendering them all confused and heartbroken.

Murasakibara Atsushi stopped begging for her milkshake, but he became a bit too overprotective of her. Even the nice guys from her class who had helped her at times not knowing 'he' is a 'she' distanced themselves because of him. Midorima Shintarou, already knew, same for Momoi Satsuki. Akashi Seijuro, like Murasakibara, became too overprotective. The only difference is that, not only the guys from theirs and other classes were being threatened—even Nijimura Shuzo and the higher-ups were being threatened. He once asked his upperclassman "_You knew?"_ with a menacing aura. He had noticed that Nijimura was always chummy with Kuroko back then, even though he knew she's a girl. "_Are you a pedophile, perhaps?"_ Akashi wanted him to taste his wrath. The poor guy became scared shitless of Akashi.

And then it hit her. After all the hurt they've caused her and how they turned into heartless little shits she couldn't hate them wholly. In fact, she still cares about them. But realizing this doesn't mean she'll sway from her aim. _I'll pull your feet back to the ground. Please, hang on._

* * *

It's the first day of school. Many students in Seirin High are flocking around the school grounds. Some are confused (particularly the freshmen), trying to confuse others (the second year prank masters), and accidentally confusing others (club officers who are trying to recruit new members).

"Basketball!" A cat-like guy with dark-brown hair says with an energetic voice. "Basketball club! How'd you like to join the basketball club?"

"Seriously, Koganei?" A cute guy with raven-black hair asks with disbelief.

"What now, Izuki? How am I supposed to say it, then?" Koganei Shinji is not annoyed at all. Or so Izuki Shun thought.

"Basketball is pun and invigorating! Join us to re-jibe-inate!" Izuki speaks his mind which is full of puns.

"Oh please, Izuki, no one will join us after hearing your lame jokes." Koganei turns and smiles to a tall, quiet guy. "Mitobe, make sure they hear you!"

Mitobe Rinnosuke, despite nodding in response, didn't make sure people hear him out. The irony. "You just won't say anything, would you?" An animated sweat drop came out on the left of Koganei's forehead.

After a few more sarcasm battles, not that Mitobe can join, though; the trio carry on with their jobs.

With her usual weak-presence, Kuroko manages to dodge both aggressive and humble recruitment, still with her book in her hand. Earlier, when she saw the library committee, she started thinking of joining. However, she immediately sighted basketball club recruiters, so her attention's instantly diverted. Without the three noticing, Kuroko has managed to get an application form from _a cute senpai_, she thought. She is technically invisible, so it isn't a surprise to her.

Kuroko, being always aware, spots a seemingly powerful player with hair resembling raging flames, height and build almost as enormous as that of a colossal titan, and presence as intense as that of a tiger, is walking behind her. She stops for a while to watch the guy, and it looks like he's going to join the basketball club. _Seems like an overwhelmingly strong player._ She thought.

The guy with tiger-like presence stopped just behind Koganei. "Is this the basketball club?" He speaks, glaring at the cat-like guy.

_Bitch it might be. _Kuroko thought. It's obvious as they are announcing that they're the basketball club. She can't help but judge the guy.

"Y-yes!" Koganei answered the guy, a bit frightened by his glare. Even Izuki and Mitobe were intimidated by him. "F-fill up this form first and then j-just go over the booth over th-there…" He points somewhere. Next thing he knew, he is being dragged by his shirt. He tries to ask for help, but Izuki and Mitobe abandoned ship. _Bastards! _He tries to struggle and break free, but to no avail.

"Where is it again?" The tiger asks, looking around. He must not have noticed how the supposed senpai tried to break free from him.

"O-over there…" Koganei points to where the coach and the captain's booth are. He seems to have given up on struggling because there is no point in doing so anyway.

Izuki and Mitobe are currently hiding behind the nearest tree they found. Both were sighing, relieved it wasn't them who were being dragged. They're not even sorry for Koganei.

Kuroko's still watching the whole scene. _Poor cat-senpai._ She watches as the tiger drags the cat further away. She suddenly realized that she must follow them, in order to immediately pass her application form.

* * *

Aida Riko counts _six. _Six application forms are all they're able to acquire for now, conceivably. _But still._ "It will be better to get a few more applicants…" She heaves a sigh.

Beside her is the captain of the basketball club, Hyuuga Junpei. He can't help but add, "We can't even get ten." Looking almost satisfied with the number of recruits. One can say it's almost a piece of good fortune they even got a few. It's plausible since Seirin's still new—two years and counting.

Coach Riko just smiles. "Don't worry, Hyuuga-kun, after all, we're just getting started! Plus, this school's new. If we win in the Inter-High and Winter Cup, we'll be acclaimed starting next year!"

"Are you nonchalantly putting pressure on me?" The captain with glasses says in a quite distressed manner.

"Hyuuga-kun, have you always been this fragile?" The coach casually asks, quite throwing the banter at him.

The captain accepts defeat. "Fine, fine! I'll do my very best." He says with a little sarcasm.

Suddenly a crying Koganei Shinji appears in front of them. "I brought a recruit…" He meows.

"Is this the basketball club?"

_Seriously? Just how many times are you going to ask the obvious? The booth's banner says 'Basketball Club', bitch. _It might not be obvious, but Kuroko has a habit of judging others. Not that they'll hear anything about it directly from her, though. She also likes to curse in her mind a lot, too. Notice the 'bitch' in her self-talks?

The two didn't notice someone behind grabbing Koganei up as if he was some bad stray kitten. Uh-oh. That's when they both looked up. What Riko saw was, a towering freshman with an intensity of a tiger.

On the other hand, Hyuuga first noticed the freshman's… Eyebrows. They were split in two. He holds back a laugh, and holy crap he looked like a freaking retard. But despite being funny at the moment, he sure didn't miss the look in the guy's eyes.

Impatient, the guy utters, "I'll ask again—"

A large, large vein pops out of Kuroko's head. _I never felt so pissed off at someone I don't even know._ But thank heavens not even a split-second passed a brown-haired girl stopped him.

"Ah, I'm sorry! No need. Yes, yes we are the basketball club." The coach manages to say despite being in a startled state.

"I want to join." The guy finally puts down poor Koganei. Hyuuga noticed and his face just twitched out of bewilderment.

"Eh?" The coach utters, still in a stunned state.

"I said, I want to join the basketball club." The guy says in an uncaring way.

"Um, welcome! Welcome!" She quickly replies. She puts a paper cup filled with energy drink in front of the guy. "But before everything else, I want you to know that our school is newly formed and so as our club, we only have up to second year upperclassmen to compete with. Your addition to the team will definitely—"

"—it doesn't matter." He cuts off, drinking from the cup. "I'll leave after I write my name here." He refers to the application sheet, and started inscribing information about himself. The captain then looks at him with a quite constipated face.

_Kagami Taiga_. Riko notices that he just wrote his name. He didn't write something on the _Reason for Joining_ section. "…You don't have a reason for joining?" She asks.

"Not really." Kagami Taiga replies. The captain looks at him with a quite constipated face, again. "After all, basketball is the same wherever you go in Japan." He crushes the paper cup in his hands, and then stands up. He turns away from the second years and throws the paper cup behind him, and scores it to the trash bin. He then walks away.

Kuroko, the coach, the captain, Koganei, and the long-gone Izuki and Mitobe were all quite impressed, by first, the shot he made, and second, his scary and smug attitude. Whether or not it was just a façade, they're all not sure yet. But they'll find out soon.

"He's scary! Is he really a freshman!?" Koganei finally have the chance to blurt it out. He was keeping his silence since he was put down by Kagami.

"He's one in a million." Izuki appends.

"You! You guys abandoned me!" Koganei complains.

"Kagami Taiga. He went to Junior High School in America. He must've learned basketball there." Captain Hyuuga comments.

"He's definitely going to be astounding, then." Coach Riko adds.

"Yo." Koganei interrupts. He hands over what seems to be an application form. "You forgot this club request, coach."

"Oh, sorry." She takes the form from him. "Let's see… Kuroko Tetsuya? I've been here the whole time yet I don't remember this guy at all." She scans the request further down, and reads something shocking. "E-eh!?" She shrieks, surprising the lot.

"What's wrong, coach?" The captain asks.

"Th-this guy! He's from Teiko basketball club!" She replies.

"You mean, _the_ Teiko?"

"Yes! And, he's a first year, which probably means he's from the Generation of Miracles." She states, excited.

"E-eh?" The boys of the basketball club cannot quite believe their ears. Will they get their hands on one of the Generation of Miracles? It will be a huge advantage if they do.

"Ugh, why can't I remember that golden egg's face!?" She wobbles her head. "The other guy just came from America, and this guy came from Teiko. These first years might be beyond belief!"

Kuroko watches them wonder about her. Now that she has left her request, she decides to leave for classes without further ado. _Kagami Taiga, huh? _She thought. _He's quite slow on the uptake but he's definitely powerful._

* * *

In the afternoon, the assessment for the first year applicants began.

"Okay, looks like all the first years are here!" Koganei verifies to his teammates.

A first year lightly nudges a friend beside him. "Hey, isn't the manager cute?" Furihata Kouki, whispers to a fellow first year named Kawahara Kouichi. "If only she were bustier…" With that they took fists in the head by the glasses-bearing captain.

"Wrong, morons. She's the coach." He calmly says. Or so they thought.

"Eh, really!?" The first years shouted in unison, excluding Kuroko and Kagami.

"That's right. I'm Aida Riko, your coach. Nice to meet ya'll." The coach introduces herself.

"But, the old man sitting there…" Furihata points to the bench. "I thought he was the coach?"

"Ah, you mean Takeda-sensei? He's our club adviser." Coach Riko swiftly explains. "Now that everything's clear, take off your shirts."

All of the first-years processed what they heard. After realizing what the coach just commanded, they all became dumbfounded. _E-eh? WHY!?_ Each of them thought in harmony.

Times like this make Kuroko thankful for her invisibility. She can't possibly take off her shirt and reveal that she's wearing bandages to hide her breasts, or simply put, to reveal that she's a girl right here right now. She's still not in. Besides, the room is full of men. She decides to use her weak-presence as an opportunity to not be able to take off her shirt.

Slowly, Kuroko moves to the corner. No one seems to notice her. _Good._ She thought. She then sees the other guys take off their shirts. The coach seems to be inspecting the guys' bodies, or more like, their physical abilities.

She hears the captain's explanation. "She can see your physical abilities in numbers just by merely looking at your body. It's a skill she picked up from watching her dad, who's a personal trainer, coach numerous people. Well, I wouldn't expect less from a coach."

_Is that so?_ _I'm in more trouble, then. _There's a very low possibility that the coach will let her slide without taking her shirt off. She can't just leave either. _What to do._

"Coach, what are you staring at?" Hyuuga asks as he was appalled by her staring at Kagami Taiga's body.

_She must be surprised by his numbers, then_. Kuroko thought.

"Ah, sorry." The coach turns away. _Such raw talent._ She thought, still surprised.

"You've looked at all of them, Kagami's the last one." The captain informs her.

"Huh? Wait." She looks at her clipboard. "Is Kuroko Tetsuya present?" She tries to find said guy by her eyes, but is nowhere to be found. "Where is he?" _Ah, how can I still not see that guy?_

_This is it._ Kuroko thought. Good thing she brought all of her physical fitness and health documents which contain her body sizes. Except for her chest size, though. "I'm over here." She spoke clearly and audibly, lowering her pitch a bit. Her voice isn't small and squeaky anyway, but she still has to take drastic measures.

Everyone in the room was surprised. They wondered if that person was always there. Although the person's at the back, still, anyone could've noticed him. The coach could've spotted him.

"E-eh?" The coach screeches. _Was he there since the beginning? The heck, this guy is practically invisible!_

"I'm sorry, I was always here. Um, my numbers are quite low. Here's my documents." She hands the coach the documents.

The coach examines the papers, at times checking out Kuroko to make sure the sizes match. _There's no need to make him take off his shirt now. But the real problem's that, his stats aren't just 'quite' low. It's extremely low! _"Alright." She hands back the documents to Kuroko, still wondering how this guy could've been accepted in Teiko's basketball club.

Kuroko mentally sighed. And patted herself at the back. She got off the trouble.

"This guy's from the Generation of Miracles? He couldn't have been a regular, right?" Koganei asks the coach, wondering how a delicate-looking person could even be a part of Teiko. Much less the basketball club.

"Of course. Right, Kuroko-kun?" The captain affirms Koganei's opinion.

Kagami Taiga looked at the person named Kuroko. _Generation of Miracles, huh?_ He thought. But it couldn't be. He looks too weak, the kind that would break into two after being pushed down… Or was that a bit exaggerated? All of the people in the gym thought the same thing, though.

"…"

"…"

"…"

The room was quiet for a while.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Um, actually… I did play in games."

With that, a loud "_EEEEEHHHH?" _can be heard all over Japan.

* * *

**A/N: First chapter's up. Sorry everyone, this one's almost patterned after the real Kuroko no Basuke series. (T_T) That was quite my idea, actually. I wanted it to be the same as KnB, only changing Kuroko as a girl and then adding few more humours and twists. And LOVE and HAREM. Soon. XD**

**Yep, I just did an _Attack on Titan _reference. ('^') HAHA. Thanks so much for giving this a chance, guys! Let me know what you guys think. I'd really love to hear from you!**

**InsanityOwl, TECKK, s.f14, camelia17: **Thank you guys for the reviews and compliments, and also for waiting. :)

**3j4: **Gosh, I know right? She swore on the scissors. O_O I'm glad you liked the preview. ^_^

**imKimTheWriter: **Thanks so much! I'm glad you thought it was hilarious! Please do review again. I love your enthusiasm. ^_^

**AngelTricks: **HAHAHA! I like that idea! XD It might be possible that Murasakibara might feel that way… Hmm. We'll see! Thanks for the support! :)

**AND TO EVERYONE ELSE WHO FOLLOWED AND FAVORITED THIS FIC. Thanks guys~ See you soon for the next chapter.**


	4. 2: The Revelation!

**Warnings: **Character-bashing (the author sorta bullies Kagami for being a Baka here) ^_^ Peace! As usual, a judging Kuroko-sama. And profanities.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

* * *

_After the loud death wails, the whole Seirin team stood there, dumbfounded. Except for Coach Riko, though, she remained calm at that moment. To her, it didn't seem impossible. It is quite absurd, but not completely impossible. Even though Kuroko seemed to be at his limit, there must have been something special about him that contributed to him being credited as the phantom sixth man._

_And so, the day went on. Three unnamed characters didn't survive Aida Riko's training menu from hell and quit halfway from finishing. Kagami Taiga, Furihata Kouki, Kawahara Kouichi, Fukuda Hiroshi and Kuroko Tetsuya got accepted as temporary members. Repeat. Temporary. The coach is scheming. Probably._

* * *

Kagami Taiga just cannot sit still. He has to play basketball tonight. Right. This. Very. Evening. Even though he can do it tomorrow. Don't even try to ask him why. Just don't.

A few minutes have passed since he started playing. Scoring consecutive points as he shoots every now and then, he suddenly, uh… Felt a chill down his spine. He wondered where he felt those sensations before. Was it when his childhood friend told him scary stories? _Nope._ When he felt a presence of the unknown… _It might be_. Or more specifically the feeling of being watched by somethi— no, someone, you can't see. _Gulp. _Someone sounded the lowest note of the freaking creepy piano in his mind just now. _Someone help me._ He prayed as the chills didn't leave, in fact, it gradually increased.

He moved around the court, trying to distract himself. Should he run? _No way._ He thought. And so he continued to play, ignoring the chills down his spine. He wished in the back of his mind for it to go away. But a few more minutes passed… It's still there. He's thinking of running now. _Hey, only cowards do that!_ This stubborn retard just won't go home even if it's so late already. The author herself thinks he deserves all this scary shits after all.

Then he felt as though he was slowly being petrified—his movements became restricted. Whether it was his body acting up or merely being cautious as the unknown felt more focused on him even more, he did not know. But all he knew is that, he has to shoot one more time. Just one more. ("Just go home already, Bakagami." – The Author)

And he jumped, almost releasing the final ball in his hands. But before he could almost throw it in the air aiming to the basket, he saw an obscure figure near the basketball panel. This causes his shot to miss. But that wasn't the problem. It was the looming figure—_just what was that_? He thought, scared.

Now, he's a shaking mess. He didn't know what to do… He slowly tried to look at the—gasp—ghost. And it was… To both his relief and dismay, _the teal-haired dude from the basketball club_. A part of him was relieved, but a huge part of him was so mad. _Just what does this little prick thinks he's doing out here late in the evening creeping people out?_ He asks himself, as if he wasn't doing the same thing, with the exception of creeping people out.

Kagami didn't notice the ball land in the teal-head's hands, instead shifts into a defensive position. "Oi, don't just go creeping people out late in the evening!" He yelled to the smaller.

Kuroko didn't seem to mind his biting comment. "Good evening." She greeted with her usual blank face. "I believe I'm not doing anything to harm others, if that's what you're implying." She bluntly says. "Here's your ball." She passes the ball to Kagami.

Flame-haired dude was taken aback by the teal-head's sudden pass, but caught the ball anyway. They stood in silence for a few seconds. "When I came back from America; I was appalled by how low the levels in Japan are." He says. "I don't play basketball for fun. I want to have the right motivation to keep doing my best."

"What kind of motivation, Kagami-kun?" Kuroko asks nonchalantly. She didn't quite comprehend what _'motivation' _the guy was talking about.

"Like I said, motivation to keep me going." Kagami replies casually, which didn't answer Kuroko's question at all.

_This guy has a habit of doing unnecessary recaps, doesn't he? _Kuroko thought, obviously annoyed. She sighed. "Perhaps a motivation involving provocations from opposing teams? Is that it?" She asked, voice still monotone, but you can hear a hint of annoyance in it, though.

"You're quite getting there, but not really." Kagami says, irritating the smaller again. "Well, it's the overwhelmingly strong players, to be honest."

Kuroko was a bit taken back by Kagami's answer. It reminded her of her former light and closest friend. _He's gives off quite an overwhelmingly strong player feel, too, if you ask me. There's only one way to find out._ She was about to ask him on a one-on-one, when suddenly—

"Let's have a one-on-one." Kagami challenges. "I heard you're from the Generation of Miracles, the supposedly exceptional team from our year." He spins the ball on his index finger. "I can somehow sense how good others are. People who have what it takes to win smell different from the rest. The weak should smell weak, however, you…" He tosses the ball back to Kuroko. "…You don't smell like anything."

Kuroko catches the ball that was tossed to her. She looks at it. _I don't want to be lumped together with those retards, but fine. _"Alright." She was thinking of taking off her jacket, but it was quite chilly, so she set aside the thought. What's the point of acting cool when you're only bound to get frozen, anyways? "One-on-one it is, then."

* * *

Kagami Taiga never felt so disappointed before. After all those obvious challenge the teal-head imposed, and that confident affirmation about the one-on-one, it was all for nothing. Like, _nothing._ He watches as Kuroko tried to follow the ball he missed shooting. His eyes widen comically at how bad the teal-head is. "Y-you… You've got to be kidding me!" He yells. "Weren't you listening to what I've said!? You actually thought you can beat me with those low level skills!? I can't believe how arrogantly you accepted my challenge!" He points a finger at Kuroko.

She was surprised at Kagami snapping at her. _Was he expecting a lot? How stupid. _"No, _you're_ the one who's got to be kidding me. How can you expect something from _me_?" She explains in her monotone voice, referring to her small stature. "Of course I knew from the start that you're better than me." She notices that the guy with flaming hair was a bit taken aback by her rhyming explanation. But it didn't seem enough since it didn't make him calmer than before, if ever, he grew even more annoyed. The huge vein on his forehead is evidence.

"Are you looking for a fight? What the hell do you think you're doing?" Kagami shouts, grabbing Kuroko's collar.

Kuroko almost got stunned by Kagami's sudden charge at her, but she got her cool back immediately. "I just wanted to see how good you are. Is that bad?" She said, feeling a little bad about herself. Just kidding. She was just guilt-tripping Kagami.

"The heck?" He lets go of her collar. He puts a hand on his head, feeling a little bit guilty. The power of Kuroko-sama. _Well, this is stupid. This kid's right, how can I expect something just because his strength didn't have any smell? He just didn't have any because of his invisibility. Or because he's just too weak. Whatever._ He thought."I'm going." Finally, he decides to go home.

"Eh?" Kuroko sees Kagami retreating to the bench; he seems to be getting his stuff by now. She then observes the fewer people walking on the sidewalks and the sky seems darker. _It's late. _"I guess it's that time already."

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not going home just because it's already late, I'm going because I've had enough of you." The flaming-head puts in plain words. _If you didn't come I wouldn't have lost motivation to play all night._ He thought. You can say it's a good thing Kuroko went to piss off this moron.

The huge vein makes an appearance again, this time on Kuroko's forehead. "Kagami-ku—"

"—You have no talent for basketball. Just quit. Hard-work and effort can only take you so far; you still have to combine it with raw talent to go farther." Kagami dismisses her.

Kuroko is silent for a second. The flaming-head was about to go until she speaks up again. "If that's what you think, I have no say about it. But, I don't share the same opinion. I won't quit basketball over something like that. I love playing basketball… I don't even care about who's strong or weak." She pauses a bit. "And I am different from you."

He looks back at her. "And why is that?"

She, however, looks away. "Because I'm a shadow."

* * *

On his way home, Kagami Taiga can't help but think about his final conversation with Kuroko Tetsuya. Particularly, his last words.

_"Because I'm a shadow."_

He continued to walk, wondering what exactly Kuroko meant by 'shadow'. And he lets his mind wander around. Somehow, a ghost stalker sounds fitting in the teal-head's case. His face turned red out of total hysterics; he almost let out a laugh. Good thing he didn't, or else passersby would have thought he's retarded or crazy or something.

Now it explains why he felt a chill down his spine when the small guy watched him play earlier. And then he realized something. _Can it be that he has supernatural powers that can steal other people's abilities? And he's got his eye on mine? _He thought, freaked out.

It's also possible that Kuroko's just an imaginary identity that doesn't really exist like those in thriller-psychological movies he watched in America. He shakes his head. _Go home Kagami Taiga, you're drunk. _Or simply lunatic. He kept thinking about other possibilities until he reached his apartment.

_He can't possibly be a real ghost, right? _He thought. And then his stomach grumbled. He instantly shrugged off the thought about the shadow-thingy and prepared himself a decent supper.

* * *

"I'm home~" Kuroko says as cheerfully as possible, though still lacking, you can tell the difference from the monotone one.

"Welcome back, dear." Her mother replies sweetly. "Grandma's sleeping already. Let's go and eat supper."

"Okay."

After the supper, she washed up and got ready for bed. As she was about to lie down, she put the book she's currently reading beside her head pillow. Now lying down, she thought of what to do tomorrow.

Her plan was to reveal her real gender after she got accepted. She's still a temporary member, though. But because of the few number of members the Seirin basketball club; she believed they might not be able to just let her go. _Or will they?_ She thought. She can't underestimate the coach's reasons for her decisions, but what if she decides to make her leave the club? _But I still have to tell them, or else I'll feel bad. And be in more trouble. _And she feels like she'll be accepted and understood by her new team.

And she's got this feeling that she'll meet them again soon. She has to let her own team know before the rainbow gang ruins it for her. That's when she finally decided. _Tomorrow, I'll stop wearing my bandages._

She can't fall asleep. It is like this all the time, almost normal to her. It started when she resigned from the basketball club back in junior high. When she lay in bed, memories of them started to play; and again she remembered how devastated her childhood friend was in that final match, and how it was done by her former captain whom she cared for deeply.

In her mind appears how her former team was. They used to be happy, always had each other's backs, and took care of one another. _Why did things turn out like this? _It was inevitable. But could she had done something to make it better? No. She couldn't possibly control how they suddenly got stronger and felt like nothing could beat them. The feeling of superiority. She didn't understand how they felt, since she never experienced being as strong as they are. But is that enough reason to act like they did?

She couldn't do anything back then. But now, she can. _I'll kick your asses for you guys to know where you belong._ Her mind wanders back to the crimson-haired leader. _Especially you, Akashi-kun. I'll kick your little ass so bad. I can't even wait to see your poor little face and you down on your knees begging for…_ And then she realizes that she's being carried away. _For what, exactly? _She slaps herself mentally.

She takes a look at the wall clock to see that it's 11:37 already. _Time to sleep, indeed._

* * *

Kuroko went to school as planned. She didn't wear bandages. She even wore the girl's school uniform in classes. But to her dismay, none of her teammates seemed to notice her. She sighed.

She recalls what happened earlier in the locker room. She was changing. Suddenly, the senpais went in to change into their practice attire. She hid behind the locker, and good thing she's got weak-presence, she was in her underwear then. At least no one saw her in her underwear.

But the problem now, is that, no one seems to see the difference from yesterday and today. She sighed again.

With the coach's signal, the practice match began. It was the senpais vs the kouhais. The tip off went well for Kuroko's current team, as Kagami effortlessly got the ball to their side. Kagami also dunked a few times during the first few minutes. Their coach looked surprised, as she must not have expected Kagami to be this good. But despite the freshmen's great effort and talent combo, the second-years are also doing very well.

Kuroko's kind of distracted as she is bothered by the fact that no one still notices what's different about her. Because of that, Izuki managed to steal the ball from her. She's kinda annoyed now. _Senpai, thank your parents you're a cutie. Or you could have tasted my wrath just a moment back there. _Much to her chagrin, the coach can't notice her either, or the captain. It's her invisibility, isn't it?

Oh, she's annoyed, alright. Kagami, Furihata, Kawahara and Fukuda, however, notice her. But these idiots can't see that she's a girl. She can tell because of their constant annoyance at how Izuki or Koganei or Mitobe always managed to steal the ball from her.

"Hey, keep it together!" Says Furihata.

"Oi, Kuroko!" Says Fukuda.

"You again?" Says Kawahara.

"You can't play for shit after all!" Says Kagami.

Oh, she's mad now, alright. Really mad. But still, she kept it together. And the game went on.

The second-years planned on triple-teaming Kagami, which worked. They pulled up their scores, and eventually, the gap has become huge.

"They're really good." Fukuda comments, breathing heavily.

"There's no way we could win against them. I've had enough." Fukuda wearily says. The next thing he knew, Kagami's grabbing his shirt.

"Enough? What the hell are you talking about!?" An angry Kagami barks.

_Idiot. _Kuroko thought. She tries to calm the tiger down by shoving a knee to the back of Kagami's, making it bend forward a little, dumbfounding him. "Calm down, Kagami-kun." She says with a blank face.

"Bastard!" Kagami was about to charge at her when the trio tried to restrain him.

"E-eh?" Hyuuga Junpei is bowled over. "Has Kuroko been playing all along?"

The coach just realized it, too. "R-right. I didn't notice it, either."

"Me neither." Koganei adds.

Mitobe nods.

"H-huh?" Izuki utters, surprised. How could you Izuki-kun. You stole the ball from Kuroko a lot.

That's when Kuroko snapped. "Excuse me, can you please pass me the ball?" The trio felt the scary feeling she was giving off.

"S-sure." The three of them said in unison. _But what's he gonna do?_ They thought in unison.

It's a given that Fukuda must pass to Kuroko. There's not much choice, plus, he thought Kuroko's scary. And so he did pass.

In a matter of seconds, the ball was mysteriously on the other side of the court, where Furihata stood. He got his hand on the ball and managed to score. But, the question is, how? All Fukuda knew is that he passed to Kuroko— _What?_

And it happened again. And again. And again. The second-years are confused as hell, and so are the first-years, but the thing is, the first-years didn't mind because they kept on scoring.

Aida Riko saw everything. It was Kuroko's passes. She uses her weak-presence and a technique called misdirection—directing the opponents' attention away from the player and to the ball. And that's when she remembered the phantom sixth man.

Suddenly, Kuroko asked for a time-out. "I need to go to the restroom. May I?"

"A-alright." The coach permits, still on a daze. Then she notices Kuroko going past the men's restroom. "Kuroko-kun, the restroom's over there." She points to the Men's restroom just near the exit of the gym.

Kuroko's eyes gleamed out of excitement. _Now's my chance. _"But it's the Men's restroom." Kuroko replies with a stoic face. "The Women's restroom is just outside the gym."

"H-huh?" The whole team stammered.

"W-why exactly would you _need _to go to the Women's restroom?" The coach asks, flabbergasted.

"Because I'm a girl." She says frankly.

The revelation left them all speechless. After a while, for the second time, a loud "_EEEEHHHHHHHH?" _can be heard all over Japan.

* * *

Kagami Taiga cannot believe it. Kuroko is a girl. _Like, seriously!? How can a girl last long on a court full of men like that!?_

"S-so, it's true then…" The coach of Seirin basketball team Aida Riko cannot believe it either. The rumors about the phantom sixth man were true. And the other rumor, about that phantom to be female, too. It was all true.

The rest of the Seirin boys suddenly gasped out of pure surprise and delight. Their cute new recruit is a girl after all!

"I knew this will happen, after all. I apologize for not telling you immediately. I thought it was obvious." Kuroko simply explains. Then she thought, _is it the length of my hair, perhaps?_

_How can I not notice? _All the people in the room thought in unison. _Th-this girl's more or less a C-cup! How can I!?_

Suddenly, the whole team blushed madly and burst into tears of joy, except for Kagami and the coach. "Ah, we have such a cute kouhai~" All of them began to reach for Kuroko to embrace her, but an ominous aura in the opposite direction started to flow. They halted.

"C-coach! Let us explain!" Hyuuga tries to calm the coach down. But he's a few seconds too late. After all, perverts deserve no mercy, especially pedophiles. Perhaps pedophiles isn't a fair word to describe them. Or not.

"Second years, training menu tripled." The coach says with a suspiciously evil smile. "If you complain, I'll have it quadrupled. START NOW."

_Eeeeh!? What about the first years!?_ The pedophiles thought in unison. It's either amazing or creepy how they can all think alike.

"We're spared." Fukuda whispers to Furihata and Kawahara. The other two can't help but agree.

Kagami watched as the team began their training of demise. _Good thing I'm not like them_. He thought. He slowly turns to look at Kuroko. He's still quite baffled about the discovery about the weak-looking person's real gender. _Generation of Miracles, huh? If this girl's strong enough to surprise me, what more if it's the other members?_ He reflects. Somehow, he has a feeling that, this girl will show a lot of surprises more than what the Generation of Miracles can show. _It's a girl who didn't just fought men in official games, but won against them in every single one of it. The first one._

"Can I go to the restroom now?" Kuroko asks, slightly shaking. Looks like she really needed to go to the restroom.

Everyone nodded.

When Kuroko came back, the second-years are somehow done with their punishment. How it happened so fast, nobody knows. But all of them were aware of her now, and some are still blushing like hell.

"Kuroko-ku—I mean Kuroko-chan." The coach calls her. "Why did you trick me?" She's unbelievably calm. Really.

Kuroko doesn't know where to start. She has a lot to say. She's just worried about what her teammates are thinking. With one wrong answer, she might get kicked out of the club. The coach noticed her worry and discomfort.

"I'm not angry at all, nor am I going to kick you out of the team, Kuroko-chan." The coach smiles at her. "You deserve being here. After all, you've worked hard and earned the phantom sixth man title. I repeat, you _earned _it. Everyone in your former team acknowledged you, and heck, they're an overwhelmingly strong team. So how can we, a new team not do so?" She assures her.

The Seirin boys are jaded; they didn't know the coach can be this nice.

Kuroko felt warmth from the coach's words. "Please don't say it like that. Seirin is a strong team; stronger than any other team. I know and I believe it, coach." This caught everyone off-guard. She pauses. "You guys all genuinely love basketball, you have fun and try your very best at the same time, and you trust one another so much and value your friendship. This is why I chose to go to Seirin." She elucidates.

Everyone felt happy and warm with Kuroko's words. Even Kagami.

They continued the match, and again, the first-years kept on scoring. But it wasn't because of Kuroko's misdirection, but because they were aware of her now. The pedophiles still can't help their hearts from beating fast around her. Even the first year trio can't score properly. Right now, only Kagami was scoring. The coach reminded herself to punish them again later, including the first-year trio.

Within the last few seconds, Kuroko got the ball to herself without anyone in her way. She ran to the other side of the court, and tried to shoot dramatically. At least in the eyes of the Seirin boys.

The shot did not go in, unfortunately. But Kagami was at her back. "Score properly, idiot." He managed to get the ball in the basket.

The first-years won by a one point difference. So much for being flustered, second-years.

* * *

**A/N: I enjoyed writing this one, like seriously. Especially after I've read your reviews! HAHAHA. ^_^**

**3j4: **I thought of making Riko not notice it for my plot demands it. HAHAHA. :) I hope you like this chapter!

**Guest: **I'm so sorry if it was disrupting! :( I managed to stop writing the 'bitch' in Kuroko-sama's self-talks now. It was tempting though! HAHA. XD

**InsanityOwl: **Unfortunately, no. Instead I made her the "Tetsu-chan, let's go shopping, Tetsu-chan… Tetsu-chan?" kind of Momoi. LESBIAN MOMOI'S FUNNY THOUGH! XD I've actually considered it before, but I made a decision to pair her up with Ahomine. :) Here's another chapter! Hope you liked it. AND PLEASE DO STICK AROUND TO REVIEW. :')

**TECKK: **Thanks for review! :) Here's another update for ya.

**Kujo Kasuza: **I'm glad you have the same taste as mine! Hooray! :D Yep I love AkaKuro so much, all I could think about is them getting married. T_T And yes, yes indeed. Kise accepted it gradually, but then again. He learned he's not gay after all! HAHA. Please continue to review! I hope you like this chapter! ^_^

**RedFoxKing: **HAHAHAHA. Seriously you had me LOL-ing at your review! :)) Let's do the high five! XD I was thinking of slapping Kagami in the anime back then, to be honest. I thought it was ridiculous of him to ask like, all the freaking time! HAHA. Pleeaaase continue to review! XD

**AngelTricks: **HAHAHA. Thank you again! :) Please continue to let me know what you think. Here's another update. I hope you liked it!

**MINNA-SAN THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING AND FAVORITING THIS FIC! LOVE YA'LL. I'LL UPDATE AGAIN AS SOON AS I CAN~ YASS**


	5. 3: We're Going To Be The Best

**Warnings: **Spoilers? I'm not sure... XD Profanities as usual. Kinda OOC Akashi (check the Summary chap, I already mentioned about how his characterization will be). T_T And Kuroko-sama teasing/flirty mode on somewhere... Yep.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

* * *

_Everyone wanted to walk Kuroko home after the practice match. Including the coach, but excluding Kagami. 'Playing hard to get' is what everyone thought._

_But nope. Kagami just wants to go to Maji Burger after that 'cause he's so freaking hungry. Believe him. And Kuroko refused being walked home for she is craving for a certain vanilla milkshake which is in Maji Burger, too. _

_The two decided to go together to the other Seirin boys' dismay. 'Kagami the Sly Bastard' is what they called him behind his back from then on._

* * *

Kuroko Tetsuna is aghast by Kagami Taiga's enormous appetite, the same way Kagami is appalled by how tiny Kuroko's appetite is. Apparently, he ordered about fifteen cheeseburgers. As if fifteen weren't enough, he ordered another five for take-out. She, however, ordered one vanilla milkshake for herself.

"Is that enough for you?" Kagami asks, almost amazed by how she manages to even play basketball. Reason one, she looks so fragile. Two, her food choice is so damn unhealthy.

"Yes." Kuroko replies with a weird contentment written across her face. "I only like this place's vanilla milkshake."

_Weird. She's that happy because of a milkshake?_ Kagami sighed. "Here." He hands Kuroko one of his precious cheeseburgers. "Eat that. A sugary whatnot drink won't give you enough energy you need for tomorrow, you know."

"Thank you." Kuroko gave him a small smile, genuinely expressing her gratitude.

Kagami blushes at Kuroko's reaction; he's not quite expecting her to be _that_ sincere. "D-don't mention it." He looks at her, noticing that she's wearing the girls' uniform. He's trying to compare how she looked like when she wore the boys' uniform. _She looks better like this._ He blushes again at his own thoughts.

After a few minutes, Kagami finished off fourteen cheeseburgers, since he gave Kuroko one, plus two more since he still felt like eating an extra. He ended up ordering another seven for take-out. It's scary, really.

The duo then started walking on their way home, all full.

"Should I walk you home?" Kagami asks while they are both walking, looking at her slightly embarrassed, trying to be a gentleman.

"No need, Kagami-kun. Thanks for your concern." Kuroko responds. She doesn't like troubling people, and more importantly, she doesn't like being treated like a weak girl. She clearly can take care of herself.

"If you say so." Kagami utters, looking away from her. He thinks of a topic to talk about, and he recalls his curiosity about the Generation of Miracles. He looks at her again. "Say, if I played the Generation of Miracles, how will I do?"

"You'll be annihilated without doubt." Kuroko replies bluntly.

Kagami becomes irritated at her reply. "Did you have put it like that!?"

"Sorry." She says in her monotone voice. She then recollects the promise the rainbow gang agreed upon before parting ways. "Each of them has gone on to play for different schools. Only one of those schools will remain on top."

Kagami chuckles. "That's great."

Kuroko looks at him with slightly raised eyebrows. "You think so?"

"I sure do. Those kinds of things motivate me." He says with determination on his face. "I've decided. I'll trounce them all and become Japan's number one player."

There was a few seconds of silence. Kuroko stopped walking, making Kagami halt also. "I don't think that's possible."

Again, Kuroko's remark irritated the tiger. "HEY!" He turns to her with a contorted expression on his face.

"If you have hidden talent, I wouldn't know. But judging from how tremendous their individual strengths are, you won't even reach their feet. You can't defeat them, alone and for now at least." Kuroko explains. She then thinks of her plan. The plan to defeat the Miracles. "I've also decided." Kagami's curiosity's piqued at this. "I'm a shadow. The stronger the light, the darker the shadow. And I will be the shadow to your light; I'll make you the best player in Japan."

Kagami kinda cringed because of how corny Kuroko's declaration sounded. _Shadow to my light?_ He winced mentally. But looking at it, she's definitely serious, and didn't mean for it to sound corny. He sighs. "Do whatever you want."

Kuroko gives a small smile. "I'll do my best."

They started to walk again.

Kagami decided to start up a conversation. "Oi, Kuroko." He calls out without taking his eyes off the road.

"Yes?" She replies, doing the same.

"What were they like?"

"Eh? You mean the rainbow gang?"

"Of cou—" And then Kagami processed what Kuroko just said. _Rainbow gang?_ He was utterly confused. "What was that?" He asks, not sure if he heard correctly.

"Rainbow gang. The Generation of Miracles." She replies. And then she realizes what she just said. "Oh. Sorry. I forgot you haven't met them."

"R-right." Kagami says, still confused.

"I called them rainbow gang because of their hair colors. They each have yellow, green, blue, pink, purple, and red hair. When we all walk together it's so... Colorful. It's kind of creepy if you ask me." She explains adding her baby blue hair color to the pack.

Kagami laughed hysterically. He never thought someone can be funny without them even realizing it. Let alone be funny with a serious face like Kuroko's. "You… You realize your buddies might be insulted if they knew you talked about them like this, right?" He says, wiping tears off his eyes due to too much hysterics.

_Buddies?_ Kuroko thought. "At some point we were all 'buddies', I think. But I don't know about now." Kuroko didn't mean it in a bad way. She thought of them as her real friends, and she hoped they did, too. But she isn't sure if they felt the same. As for Momoi Satsuki, she understands why she had to leave her, clearly it was because of Aomine Daiki. She believed Momoi thinks of her as real friend, too. But she couldn't say the same about the rest of them. She realizes she also misses her senpai who moved to America after graduating from Junior High—Nijimura Shuzo, whom she admires and respects as an older sibling until now. She misses all of them.

"Earth to Kuroko?" Kagami waves a hand in front of her. "Hello? You still there?"

Kuroko goes out of her trance. "Ah. Sorry, Kagami-kun. I spaced out. Were you saying something?"

"Not really. I was just watching how your expression turned darker by the second. A not-so-happy recollection, is that it?"

"I guess." She says with stoic face.

Kagami felt guilty. Looks like he hit a sour topic. "Sorry, was it something I said?"

"Not really. This happens to me sometimes." Kuroko reassures him.

Kagami's still worried though. He did hit a sour topic, that's for sure.

* * *

At some point, Kagami and Kuroko parted ways since they both live a bit far from each other.

While walking, almost near her home, Kuroko unconsciously thought of her former captain, Akashi Seijuro again. Somehow, he manages to invade her mind just whenever. She has long accepted and permitted the invasion, since it was almost… Usual to her. And the more she tries to keep him out of her mind, the more he occupies it.

Annoyed by the fact, she unconsciously blurted out, "Drop dead." Which scared off a few kids walking around the neighborhood.

Meanwhile at the Rakuzan High School gym, Akashi Seijuro felt a sudden dropping down of temperature while running over a treadmill. He has a feeling that a certain someone's responsible for it. _Tetsuna._ He smirked. He then suddenly remembered things from the past and his grin dropped in an instant.

"Sei-chan~ Here, a towel." Akashi drops out of his trance. Mibuchi Reo, a girly guy, hands over a _baby blue_ colored towel. Girly guy then turns away, going back to the treadmill he was using.

Akashi is somewhat amused. First, the temperature; and now, the baby blue colored towel. He feels like Tetsuna is sending him her regards. Her _"vengeful" _regards, that is. "Still vengeful. Aren't we?" He lets out the words involuntarily. Three other people with him including Mibuchi turned their heads at him in a split-second, comically.

"Eh? Akashi? Wh—" Hayama Kotarou, one of Akashi's current disciples tries to ask, confused, but is interrupted.

"Hayama, don't! You still want to live, right?" Eikichi Nebuya, a tanned brawny guy whispers loudly. Unfortunately, he got brawns for brains.

"Shut up, you two!" Mibuchi tries to silence the two harebrained.

A guy in the corner with gray hair named Mayuzumi Chihiro just kept silent and didn't care at all. It looks like he's busy reading a light novel.

Akashi didn't mind his disciples blabbering things and bickering before his presence for now. He picks up his phone, which is in a shade similar to his hair color. He then attempts to send his regards to a certain someone.

Kuroko's phone then made a sound. She flips open her phone, only to widen her eyes at a discovery. _Akashi-kun e-mailed me._

_... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... _

_From: Demon King_

_Subject: None_

_..._

_Perhaps you wished for my death just now, Tetsuna?_

_... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __... __..._

Kuroko bit her lip. This is the first time in about four months ever since she last received an e-mail from him. And yes, she feels weirded and creeped out by his message. _Yes, I kind of did without thinking._ She sighed. She didn't mean it, though. But how did he know?

_... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... _

_From: Tetsuna_

_Subject: I did not_

_..._

_What are you talking about, Akashi-kun?_

_... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... _

Akashi was kind of surprised and relieved at the same time, she replied to his message in an instant, making him feel quite smug. He realized how long it has been since he last heard her called him 'Akashi-kun'. Somehow, he hears her monotone voice by reading her message. Same for Kuroko's side.

_... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... _

_From: Demon King_

_Subject: Yes you did_

_..._

_Stop feigning innocence, Tetsuna. I know you did._

_The air grew cold abruptly._

_... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... _

This makes Kuroko smile a little.

_... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... _

_From: Tetsuna_

_Subject: If you say so_

_..._

_I have nothing to do with the weather there in Kyoto. _

_And I don't have control over what you want to believe_

_I'm busy, so if you'll excuse me._

_... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... _

Akashi smirked. She is definitely lying and is on the defensive.

_... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... _

_From: Demon King_

_Subject: If you say so, too_

_..._

_Forgive my sudden interruption, then. Have a good _

_evening, Tetsuna._

_... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ..._

Kuroko sighs for the umpteenth time. She wonders just how exactly her thoughts reach him every time she directs a complaint to him in her mind.

Finally, she reaches her house and gets inside immediately. "I'm home~" She does the routine. Her mom welcomes her back as always.

* * *

Morning came and Kagami rushed to school to ask Hyuuga the captain about the 'practice match' they were planning against another school. He cannot sit still because of his undeniable excitement over crushing the Generation of Miracles, and he can still recall perfectly how Kuroko promised him on aiding him to do so.

Only, there is a problem.

"You're still just a trial member. You can't play yet." Hyuuga the captain clarifies. "You should ask the coach on how you can be an official member."

And so he did. Kagami went to ask Riko the coach for an official membership club form and she gives him one. "Alright, if you're this eager. Good thing we have enough room on the bench."

"I'll just fill this up, then." Kagami says in a happy mood.

And then the coach decides to kill his mood. "Hold it right there. I'll only accept your form on Monday at 8:40 on the rooftop." She points up.

_Something smells fishy._ Kagami thought. But he paid no further heed to it in a matter of seconds.

He walked down the corridors, almost walking past the bulletin board. He almost didn't notice the news about their basketball club dating a few months back. The news headlined, _"Serin High School Basketball Club's Kanto Tournament Debut!_".

"They weren't kidding." Kagami comments.

"Yes, they're strong indeed." Someone said.

Kagami looked beside him, astonished. It's the ghost again. "OI! STOP COMING OUT OF NOWHERE!" He shouts exasperatedly.

"Please keep your voice down, Kagami-kun; we're in front of the library." Kuroko says as bluntly as always.

"And whose fault is that!?" Kagami retorts with more hushed voice but still with exasperation. _I still can't believe it. How can this ghost girl be the phantom sixth man? And how did that happen anyway? All the other members of the Generation of Miracles went to play for strong schools. Why didn't this girl go with them? _

Kagami shuts his eyes for a bit. _I should ask. _He thought. "Oi, Kuroko." He opens his eyes and said girl is gone.

* * *

The next morning, exactly at 8:40, Kuroko, Kagami, and the trio Fukuda, Kawahara, and Furihata—who are now blushing because Kuroko talked to them and addressed them with –kun after their names like how she does with… Kagami or _everyone_ for that matter. Okay, that's kinda depressing, but at least she still talked to them. That's when Kagami decided to call them the _'Idiot Trio'_ from that moment on.

"HA HA HA." The coach laughs ludicrously. "I've been waiting for you."

The first year boys gave her a disbelieving look.

"Are you kidding me?" Kagami hisses, looking stupid. "THE MORNING ASSEMBLY STARTS IN FIVE MINUTES!" There he goes. He takes out his official membership club form from his pocket. "Hurry up and take this!"

"Oh, before all that, I have something to tell you." The coach just pooh-poohs Kagami's protests.

The first-years looked dumbstruck as the said morning assembly will start in a few minutes.

Riko the coach continues to speak. "I made a promise when the captain asked me to be his coach last year. I promised to focus solely on pushing the team towards the Nationals. If you don't think you're ready for that, there are other clubs better suited to you." She makes a gesture as if directing them to an exit.

Kagami made a face. "Huh? Of course I'm—"

"—Of course I know you're strong. But I need to know you have something more important than that. No matter how hard you practice, 'someday' and 'maybe' aren't good enough." The coach closes her eyes. "I need to know that you have your own ambitious aims and the resolve to achieve it." She opens her eyes and motions her right hand to the open area full of people down the building. "Give me your year, class, name, and your aims right here right now."

The first-years gave her a grimaced expression; not knowing there's an even more ridiculous objective following this. The coach puts her hands on her waist. "If you fail to achieve them, you'll come back up here, strip naked…" She emits an evil sparkle in her eyes. "…And confess your feelings to the girl you love."

The first-year trio is now nervous as hell. Kagami just brushed it aside. Kuroko, however, is confused. "Uh, coach… What about me?" _It would be troublesome to strip naked._ _Plus I don't have a thing for girls._ She thought.

The four boys next to her turned their heads to her in the speed of light. All of them blushed at the thought of her doing what the coach said, which earned them all headbutt in the face from the coach. "Kuroko-chan, my bad! I forgot about you. Well, as for you…" She looked up the sky. "I guess you'll just have to tell me the name of the guy you like. He he he." She said with a ludicrous face, putting a hand on Kuroko's shoulder.

_Shit. Am I in trouble?_ Kuroko thought with an animated sweat drop on her forehead.

The other boys had mixed reactions. Fukuda thought the coach was unfair. Kawahara thought it was smart. Furihata thought it was evil, who knows what she might be plotting for knowing who Kuroko likes, he also wants to know who Kuroko likes. Kagami thought that it would be weird to know who Kuroko likes, he's not even sure if it's possible for her to like someone. Because he thinks she's kind of… Expressionless, loveless, and a bit asexual, at least in his mind. But one thing they all had in common, they somewhat wished the lucky guy who Kuroko liked is either, (1) a great guy, (2) them. 'Nuff said.

The coach clears her throat, walking back to her position from before. "Alright, back to where we stopped." She says hurriedly, since the morning assembly is almost starting already. "All the second years did this last year."

"No one told me about this…" Says Furihata.

"I heard about it when they recruited me." Says Fukuda.

"But I didn't think they'd actually…" Follows Kawahara.

"I'm looking for something concrete and reasonable. You have to do better than 'play my first game' or 'do my best'." The coach says.

"This is easy." Kagami says, walking towards the railing. "This isn't even a test." He surprises everyone, making the coach squeak a bit, when he jumped onto the railing effortlessly maintaining his balance.

Everyone on the rooftop anticipated what he's going to say. "Class 1-B, number 5, Kagami Taiga! I will defeat the Generation of Miracles and become the best player in Japan!" He shouts before the students of Seirin High, his voice echoing around the school grounds.

Somewhere down there Hyuuga Junpei recognized the situation. _She's doing it again this year?_ Same for Izuki Shun, Koganei Shinji and Mitobe Rinnosuke.

The coach seems satisfied with Kagami's statement as she wore a pleased smile on her face. "Who's next? If you don't hurry up the teachers will get here." She warns the others.

Furihata raises a hand. "Um, can I say I want a girlfriend?"

"No." The coach rejects.

"I-I've got one…" Kawahara goes for it, which earned him his friends' support. He walks towards the railings. "Class 1-A, Kawahara Kouichi! I was a sickly kid and couldn't play sports, but things started to change for me in kindergarten…" A few more seconds passed, Kawahara was still talking. "I'll never forget the all star game I saw at school in fifth grade…" It has been forever indeed. "I joined the basketball club in middle school but…" Blah blah blah blah.

The coach decides to end his melancholic and time-consuming anecdote about himself. She kicks him straight on the head and says, "NEXT!" Annoyed.

Furihata raises his hand for the second time. "Um, can I say I want a girlfriend?"

"I SAID, NO." The coach says, fuming.

Then Fukuda gives it a try. "Class 1-D, Fukuda Hiroshi!" He starts. "I like helping others, so when I was asked for help by an upperclassman, I immediately offered my assistance."

"Who knew he'd take my joke seriously?" The cutie-senpai Izuki wondered.

"He probably didn't understand your joke." Koganei guessed correctly, though.

"Class 1-D, Furihata Kouki!" Finally. "The girl I liked said she'll go out with me if I became the best at something. I joined the basketball club to prove it!" He shouts. He turns to the coach. "If that's not good enough, I don't mind being kicked out of the team." He nervously says. He earned a nod from the coach.

Furihata walks back to his position. He sees Kuroko and she looked at him. She mouthed _"Good job," _to him which made him smitten to her. Furihata you player. Actually, he was lying about liking a girl.

_It's fun to tease him. _Kuroko thought with a small smile. Kuroko-sama, you little tease. Looks like she caught on with the guy's lie.

The coach glared at Furihata perhaps to say, _"A sudden change of heart, yeah, Fu-ri-ha-ta-kun?"_ With an evil aura. Furihata just shook his head to the extremes to get out of trouble. So much for lying.

_This really helped us focus last year. This could be a good tradition._ Captain Hyuuga thought.

"Alright, who's next?" The coach asks.

"Excuse me." Kuroko appears behind the coach out of nowhere. The coach screeched. "I'm not good at speaking loudly, so can I use this?" She takes out a megaphone.

"Where did you get that?" The coach asks, sort of impressed.

As Kuroko was about to start, everyone seemed to be anticipating at what she's going to say. Especially Kagami. He's curious about her going to Seirin instead of going with one of the Generation of Miracles, or any stronger schools, if ever.

She opens her mouth to speak, but the door behind them suddenly burst open. "You again!?" Says a teacher. "You basketball junkies!"

"Crap, we were almost done." The coach snickers.

They were all scolded by that teacher for the whole class period after that. Saying things like, "Didn't you say you won't do this again!?" And, "You should know what's right or wrong in that age!"

All of them made a face, except the expressionless Kuroko-sama. Cool as always.

* * *

After that, Kagami went alone to Maji Burger again, ordering his usual fifteen-piece cheeseburgers and additional five for takeout. He picked up the table he and Kuroko dined at yesterday.

He then remembers the teacher's pathetic lecture earlier. "I can't believe he got so mad over a little shouting." Ready to chomp on the mighty cheeseburgers.

"I didn't even finish and I got in trouble, too." A familiar monotone voice said.

Kagami looks across the table and sees Kuroko. She just never fails to shock people with her sudden appearance, and right now Kagami is a victim. Again. "I thought I told you to stop doing that!?" He choked on his burger.

Kuroko just shrugs. "Not my fault." She sips on her vanilla milkshake. "By the way, we aren't allowed on the roof anymore. What will we do if we can't join the basketball team?" Anyone can sense the slight worry in her voice.

Kagami smiles confidently. "That's not gonna happen."

"I hope so."

Kagami then decides to ask what he's been curious about all along. "I'm just curious, why didn't you go to some big-name school like the rest of the Miracles? You were good enough to be known as the phantom sixth man."

Kuroko sips on her beloved milkshake, staying silent.

"Is there some reason why you play basketball?"

She then answers. "My previous school's basketball team had one core principle: 'Winning is everything'. Instead of teamwork, they pushed the individual talents of the Generation of Miracles to win. The five of them approved, and I didn't, but it's not like I could have said anything against it then. No one could beat us, but I felt like we weren't a team at all."

Kagami felt bad for her a bit. It seems that there's much more to their history but decided not to further ask about it. "So, you're planning of beating them your own way?" He asks instead—not that he wasn't curious about that, either.

"That's what I was thinking, actually." She says simply.

"Seriously?" Kagami says with a smile, impressed.

"The coach's words and yours really struck me. Now, my biggest reason to play is trying to make you and our team the best in Japan." She says with determination.

"We're not gonna try." Kagami stands up. Kuroko follows him with her gaze. He looks at her in the eyes. "We're going to _be."_

Kuroko just smiled.

* * *

**A/N: Another chapter. T_T My head is hurting because I cannot think of any funnier banters and convos. Sorry if you're disappointed guys.**

**KujoKasuza: **Here ya go! Well, I read my work over and over and I guess their interaction wasn't crazy or anything. I'm sorrrrrryyyyyy! T-T You must've expected a lot. But I'll make up for it in some other chapter and do not fret my friend I have a huge plan for AkaKuro! HAHAHA. See ya girl~ Thanks for the reviews. :) I'll see yar reviews agaiiiin oright? ^_^d

**3j4: **Yep, I made them know because I want Izuki and Furihata to be teased already. Furihata, down. Izuki, later. HAHAHAHA. And also I want Kagami to have a longer realization of his feeling for fem!Kuroko. This is fic will be AkaKuro in the end, but still there's a one-sided thing going on, so, yeah. :)

**AngelTricks: **Yo, thank you for the kind words! :) About the rainbow troop, I'll introduce them one by one just like in the series, but flashbacks about the Teikou arc will be in the next chapters. AND YEAH THEY'LL BE OVERPROTECTIVE COZ I LOVE 'EM LIKE THAT. *0* Hahaha sorry for shouting but capslock is my thing when I'm excited! XD

I'm not sure yet about how many chapters this will have. I guess more than 30, if not, longer. Yeah I guess this will be long. HAHAHA! I hope to hear from ya again! ^_^

**RedFoxKing: **HAHAHAHA! Yep, Izuki is a cutie, and he's lucky! I don't have complaints about the wapoosh sound though! XD E-eeeh!? You're referring to Kuroko-sama the Sassmaster right? If yes, WELL YEP SHE'S SASSY INDEED. (*O* )d I won't mention again, I expect your reviews from here on okay? *High five again*

**TECKK: ** Thanks for your reviews, I hope you talk more to me in the next chapter! :))

**TO EVERYONE, PLEASSSSSEEEE REVIEW SO I KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS. T^T And thanks for the Follows and Favorites, minna-san~ see ya again**


	6. 4: Kise Ryouta

**Warnings: **Profanities. A bit of OOC. Spoilers. And many more I think. :|

* * *

**Chapter 4**

* * *

_It seems that the following day, someone inscribed _"We're going to be the best in Japan" _on the school's huge grounds. The coach became much more motivated, and so are the other members; but they couldn't exactly put a finger on who did the motivating gesture._

_However, Kagami knew who did. He looked at the person and smiled at her._

* * *

At the basketball club locker room, all of the Seirin boys with the exception of Tsuchida Satoshi are starting to change into their practice attire. If they didn't look twice, they couldn't have seen the lovely maiden standing in front of her locker in the corner. Oh how shameless could it have been undressing in front of her—the one and only Kuroko-sama?

"Uh… Um, Kuroko-chan? Is it fine for you to be here? …'Cause you know…" Hyuuga the captain asks Kuroko-sama, politely and bashfully.

"Eh?" Kuroko mutters, slightly startled. "Ah, I'm sorry; I thought it was fine since there's no female locker room for the basketball club." She knew this would be kind of awkward. But what can she do anyway? It's troublesome to find the female's restroom which is kinda far from where they are right now, given that their coach will probably be back a few minutes from now.

"Yeah that's right. There's no Women's Basketball Club here at Seirin." Koganei says, thinking.

It didn't help the situation though. Their hearts are pounding! Even Kagami was kind of flustered, too.

"Senpai, are you worried about me seeing you shirtless?" Kuroko asks frankly.

_How bold! _All of them thought with comically widened eyes. They nodded in unison afterwards, as an answer to her question.

"Then you don't have to worry; I've seen a lot of guys shirtless before. I had to deal with it since my teammates back then didn't know about my real gender. I'm used to it now." She explains.

Multiple jaws dropped in an instant.

"B-but Kuroko-chan, what about you? You have to change too, right?" Izuki says, earning a few nodding heads behind his back. He feels troubled, he can't let her cute kouhai be seen half-naked! Mind you, he respects women more than puns! Possibly. And it's possible for the others, too. Maybe.

Kuroko looks at Izuki, appreciating his concern. "Don't worry about it, cutie-senpai." She gives him a small but very beautiful and sincere smile, with blooming flowers on the background in the boys' imagination. Oh, Kuroko-sama.

"C-cutie-senpai!?" Mutters a flustered Izuki.

"GO DIE, IZUKI(-SENPAI)!" The rest of the team with the exception of Kagami and Mitobe said, jealous.

Kuroko started to take off her shirt, on cue the gawking men in the room—only to reveal a slightly tight black tank top with slightly showing bandages. It was neither an awkward nor a tempting sight. She looked professional, classy, and badass. Yep.

_Ah~ What a conservative and cool kouhai~_ Everyone with the exception of Kagami thought in moe-moe dreams, although you can't change the fact that they're kinda disappointed. They're just men, after all.

With that they started changing without apprehension.

Koganei notices a sports magazine lying at the blue bench, which is favorably the _Monthly Basketball Magazine._ He spots a blond guy in Teiko Middle School's jersey, immediately assuming it's a member of the Generation of Miracles. "Wait, didn't this issue come out when you were in Teiko, Kuroko-chan?" He asks.

"I think so, senpai." She answers with a stoic face.

Koganei started to turn the pages with Hyuuga the captain joining him, standing next to him. "All the players are featured."

They flipped some more pages. "Kuroko-chan… Doesn't have any article?" Hyuuga wonders.

"No wonder her existence was thought of as a rumor." Kagami states as-a-matter-fact. The rest of the team can't help but concur.

"But still." Koganei's rather let down. "Someone could have interviewed her, even just one person!" Mitobe nods in agreement.

"Well, it can't be helped. Teiko must have been concealing her existence back there, the way I see it." Izuki interjects. "Right, Kuroko-chan?" He turns to her.

"Yes, senpai." Kuroko answers, looking at the second-years. "Our coaches and managers are very cautious about letting out word proving the phantom sixth man's existence is true, and the fact that the phantom's a female. Which is why they forbid me from being interviewed, let alone be noticed by interviewers."

"Your weak-presence played a great role in all those happenings, didn't it?" Hyuuga comments, smiling at her.

She then wondered, if she didn't have a weak-presence, could she still have been the same Kuroko Tetsuna? Could she have met and befriended all the people she had in her in life? _Of course not._ She thought, smiling within.

"You're right, senpai. It's what made me who I am today." Kuroko reflects the smile her captain gave her.

Everyone smiled, appreciating the moment which is giving them all a warm feeling. They all realized the importance of self-appreciation.

But the moment had to banish early, unfortunately. Tsuchida appears in the locker room to disclose news about how their coach's back and _'skipping'_. Apparently, when the coach does this after agreeing upon a practice match between another school, chances are, said school will be ridiculously strong.

* * *

At that moment at the gates of Seirin High School, a tall, handsome blond wearing a different uniform steps in. "New and pristine as I expected." He assesses with a cheerful voice.

He started to walk as he was trying to find where the basketball stadium is, where he assumed Kuroko Tetsuna's located.

Walking without caring about the world, the blond didn't fail to turn heads like always.

_"Isn't he hot?" _

_"And tall, too…"_

_"He must be a model."_

_"Wait, you don't know who he is!?"_

_"He's Kise Ryouta!"_

_"Kyaaa! He's so handsome__…__"_

He continued to walk, unswerving from his current aim. He's used to this. He's always had this effect on almost the whole female population. As of today, only Momoi Satsuki and Kuroko Tetsuna are the ones immune from Kise Ryouta's charms and good-looks.

Ironically, those who wanted to get close to him never got the chance to, and the ones who "didn't mind his presence" did. Also, he didn't really care for any creatures called women, with the exception of his mother and two sisters, until _"Momocchi_" and "_Kurokocchi_" came to the picture. Not like he'll hit on Momoi, though; unless he wants to break his 'Bro Code' with _"Aominecchi"_. It's not as though Momoi and Aomine were officially together back then, but everyone can see how much they're like an old married couple. Like, duh. And he only likes Momoi as a friend. That's all there is to it.

Kuroko, however, is a special case.

When he met her for the first time that first term in second year, she was pretending to be a guy. He knew her as Kuroko Tetsuya—a _guy_ with weak-presence, and a ghost-like person appearing out of nowhere. He found said _"guy"_ annoying and didn't have respect for _him_ one bit, especially when he witnessed with his own eyes how weak _he_ played basketball. But one fateful game changed the way he looked at Kuroko and respected _him_ fully. He even added a "-cchi" to the latter's name—a representation of his acknowledgment. He reminded himself to thank _"Akashicchi"_ for planning that one out. And _"Midorimacchi" _for informing him about the whole "AkaSchemes".

And as he got to know _"Kurokocchi"_ better, the more he discovered how amazing _he_ was. As time went by, he began to feel a little bit different towards the person. He looked forward to seeing _him_ everyday; it even went to the extent in which at times he felt like hugging _him_ close and sometimes even—gasp—kissing _him_! He doubted his sexuality several times, and gradually tried to accept the fact, because, holy shit he fell in-love with Kuroko-sama! He couldn't just throw away his feelings! But he still felt insecure the whole time, though. Just how were things going to work out? He wasn't even sure if "_Kurokocchi" _has a thing for guys. It was torturing him, like seriously!

But thank heavens his sufferings came to a halt during the last week of second term in second year, as Kuroko Tetsuya was declared female to the first-string players by their head coach, Shirogane Kouzou. He said something about how protecting "Kuroko Tetsuna" is more guaranteed that way, although some info got leaked. Good thing majority of the people brushed it off as a rumor. And heck, he swore he's going to protect _"Kurokocchi" _no matter what it takes.

Fast forward to the present as a whole lot of things started happening after that, and their lives took a twisted turn, and voila! Here they are now. But his feelings for her never changed. In fact, it's even stronger than ever.

Finally, his footsteps took him near to where he's headed. He stops in front of Seirin's basketball stadium. _Ah, so this is it…_ He thought.

He's finally going to see her again.

* * *

Inside the stadium, a practice game is commencing among the Seirin basketball club members. And like the usual practice games, it's the senpais versus the kouhais.

At the moment, Izuki Shun is marking Kagami, who is currently the one dribbling the precious ball and is aiming for a freaking dunk. You've seen that one coming. As expected, the taller among the two, which is obviously the 190-centimeter-tall guy with split-eyebrows, err, gets past the 174-centimeter-tall cutie without difficulty. All he did was fake it to the right, which Izuki fell for, and made a sudden turn to the left, running with the ball.

"Not yet!" Izuki says, spontaneously trying to catch up to Kagami.

But it didn't do much since Kagami made a fast turn-around, and then jumps to dunk the ball.

"He's so fast." Furihata comments.

And then, Kagami made a successful dunk.

A blond is smirking at the background at the move he just did. Creepy.

"Nice shot!" Kawahara compliments.

"He's amazing, really! That was such a quick turn at full speed. He's definitely not your average guy." Koganei adds.

"Hey, do you guys think he can beat the Generation of Miracles?" Tsuchida optimistically asks.

"I think he can." Furihata answers, quite hopeful, too.

"Yeah, the move he did isn't easily done by ordinary players, you know." Kawahara adds up to the compliments.

"What if he's better than them already? What can you say Kuroko-san?" Fukuda asks with a hopeful glimmer in his eyes.

The rest of the boys have somehow copied Fukuda's hopeful eyes and looked at her, waiting for her reply.

"I guess…" Kuroko says. He looks at Kagami and remembers what they talked about the other evening when they were walking on the way home together, especially the part where she said, _"You won't even reach their feet."_ Now she kinda regrets saying those words.

"Everyone, gather around!" Riko the terrifying coach calls for the whole team's attention.

"Yes, ma'am!" Everyone obeys. Not something new, really.

"Okay boys! …And Kuroko-chan!" Riko calls, adding up Kuroko's name at a hurry, almost forgetting to refer to the latter as a girl. "The practice match that I've told you about earlier, it will be most certainly held tomorrow. And the team we will be going up against is…" Drum roll on cue. "Kaijou High School!" She says cheerfully.

Hyuuga was the first to react. "K-Kaijou High School!?"

"Yep. They won't disappoint us!" The coach says with a nod. "We'll put first years in the court."

"Disappoint us? They're _waaay_ better than us." Koganei says back, emphasizing the word _'way'_ a bit too much.

"They're _that_ good?" Kawahara asks.

"Their strength is at a National level." Hyuuga the captain replies immediately, warning can be heard from his tone. "They play in the Inter-High every year."

"Combine that with the fact that they got their hands on one of the Generation of Miracles, Kise Ryouta." Riko tries to scare them even more.

"EEEHHH?" Majority exclaims. Kuroko is not one of those majorities, of course.

Kagami on the other hand, celebrated inside his mind. _I never expected to play them so soon. What a blessing. _He thought.

"Apparently, Kise works as a model." The captain testifies.

"Serioulsy!?" Izuki exclaims.

"Good-looking and excellent at basketball? Some people do have it all, and he's one of those people." Koganei reckons.

Mitobe seems to be agreeing to what they're saying.

"It makes average guys like us look bad." Izuki says in a sad way.

"Izuki-senpai is cute, though." Kuroko interjects, still facing the coach, which made Kagami, who's standing next to her, jump in surprise.

"Oi, Kuroko, are you really going to continue complimenting Izuki-senpai like that all the time?" Kagami asks with a constipated face. _And with that expressionless face, too? _He thought.

"Eh?" Kuroko mumbles. She was just trying to raise her senpai's self-esteem, and it was the truth, too. Kagami then points to the other boys. She then turns to look. Looks like Hyuuga and Koganei are planning to kill the pun master. The three first-years who are now called the 'Idiot Trio' by Kagami looks very gloomy.

"Go die, Izuki! Along with your puns!" Hyuuga grabs Izuki's collar. Koganei and Mitobe are just cheering from behind.

"Izuki-senpai always gets complimented by Kuroko-san…" Kawahara starts.

"But we other guys are being completely ignored…" Fukuda adds.

"It's sad, isn't it…" Furihata finishes. The trio then lets out a fountain of tears.

The second-years, (excluding Tsuchida who has a girlfriend, and of course, the object of resentment at the moment which is Izuki Shun) all felt the sorrow of their kouhais and joined them in a group-fountain-of-tears-hug. "Why is life so unfair?" Every member cried in unison.

Kuroko, Kagami, Riko, Tsuchida, and Izuki watched in disbelief, horror and vexation.

"Hyuuga, what the hell are you thinking!? I thought you like the coach?" Izuki suddenly blurts out of the blue, his facial expression ranging from disappointment to surprise.

Everyone froze out of shock.

_Wrong move, senpai._ Kagami and Kuroko thought the same thing.

"IZUKI YOU BASTARD!" Hyuuga shouts, releasing the evil spirits he had inside him all along. Izuki is really a bastard. That was supposed to be a secret! Plus, he never really said he liked the coach. Izuki was just speculating things from back then and asked him about it, and well… He didn't say yes or anything, but he must admit himself, he looked like a typical guy who's in denial. And Izuki came with a conclusion from then on.

Izuki started running immediately. He didn't want to die yet.

Hyuuga didn't waste time and started hunting the pun master down. The whole team watched in disbelief again, a comical sweat drop visible on their foreheads.

"YOU RETARDS SHOULD SHUT THE HELL UP AND GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE NOW!" The coach hollers, annoyed. The ominous aura she's emitting helped shut the retards up.

"Y-yes ma'am!" Obedient as always. Hyuuga and Izuki are easy to control, in case it wasn't obvious.

Suddenly, loud chatters and babbles can be heard all over. It appears that someone brought a swarm of women along with him; it doesn't even matter whether it's intentional or not, whoever he is, he made the coach angry like a mad grizzly bear on her period. No excuses.

"What the hell is going on!?" The coach growls.

"Um… Sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen." A tall blond standing out from the swarm of women said, signing what seems to be uh, notes and stuff from fan-girls.

Everyone was stunned for a moment, realizing who the blond is. Just what is Kise Ryouta from the Generation of Miracles doing here?

"It's good to see you again, Kise-kun." Kuroko says with an ever expressionless face. It made the blond halt from what he's doing which is called signing.

The blond looks at the blunette with a hint of happiness and excitement on his face. "It's good to see you, too, Kurokocchi!" He smiles to her.

The rest of the Seirin members looked at Kuroko, and then Kise. They're confused as to why the blond was here, in Seirin.

Kise turns to his fan-girls. "Uh, eto… I'm really sorry, but would you mind waiting for a few minutes?"

* * *

"So, what did you come here for, Kise Ryouta?" Hyuuga felt like he should ask the question; he's the captain, so yeah.

"Well, I heard from our coach that Seirin's gonna be our opponent for the practice match tomorrow, so I thought I should say hi." The tall blond tries to explain, looking gullible.

"Really?" Izuki was kind of skeptic, his tone says it all. Like, seriously. Who would go straight to an opponent's school just to say hi? Just an utter idiot would do that.

The blond then sighs, realizing such an excuse wouldn't work. "Actually… I just wanted to see how Kurokocchi's doing." He says in a way like he's confessing.

Well, Kise Ryouta isn't lying. Kuroko Tetsuna can tell. She's known him for about two years and she can differentiate a lying Kise-kun from the Kise-kun who's telling the truth. She's the one who sighs now. _I didn't know a dimwit would actually go somewhere for a dim-witted reason. _She thought. "Kise-kun, are you being serious?" She asks a rhetorical question, with a monotone voice, but you can tell she's annoyed.

"Eh? Kurokocchi~ I know you missed me!" He then reaches for her to give her a warm hug. Kuroko stops him by simply stretching her arms and grabbing his face. "Kurokocchi, why so mean?" He started crying and whining like a little boy missing his mama, still trying to reach for her with his long arms.

The whole Seirin team looked dumbfounded watching the two.

"So this is Kise Ryouta!?" Kawahara yells, pointing at said guy.

"The rapidly improving all-rounder!?" Fukuda does the same.

"I thought he'd be cooler! Or something…" Furihata exclaims louder than the other two.

"Kise Ryouta. A rapidly improving all-rounder…" Koganei looks up and thinks. "He became a regular in a heartbeat, even though he just learned basketball a few days before he joined the club."

"Wherever you hear that from, senpai, they're exaggerating. I wouldn't believe that much if I were you." Kuroko says to his teammates, bullying Kise.

"Kurokocchi! So mean…" He cries again. But he snaps out of it a few seconds later. "Well, yeah they're exaggerating _a bit. _I mean I learned basketball about…" He pauses and started to think. "Um, maybe about a week before I joined the club, and then… About two weeks after that I became a regular. So it's almost a month." He smiles. "Plus, I'm the worst among the five of us."

_Playing the Humble Guy!? _Kagami with the rest of the Seirin boys thought.

"Cool, Kise-kun." Kuroko gives him two thumbs up, literally.

"Of course, Kurokocchi~" Kise raises a thumb up, too. The two looked like they belong in a comedy series or something.

The Seirin team figured out three things since Kise Ryouta came. One, he is a friendly guy. Two, he is an idiot. Three, he keeps on mentioning "Kurokocchi" a lot, which means he's either obsessed with Kuroko or her name itself. Or maybe both.

Suddenly, the sound of a ball dribbling rang in the ears of everyone present. "Oi." Kagami says to Kise. "Sorry for interrupting your reunion with Kuroko, pretty boy…" He somehow felt annoyed at the sound of _'pretty boy and Kuroko's reunion' _and suddenly throws a fit. "Err, whatever. But I'm pretty sure that you didn't come here just for that!" He throws the ball to the blond. "I'm sure you came here to play, pretty boy!"

This makes the blond smile with confidence, catching the ball easily. He can say that the tiger boy wasn't guessing wrong.

"Kagami-kun, you mentioned 'pretty boy' twice. What does that make you?" Kuroko tries to bully Kagami now, making the rest of the team roll on the floor laughing, literally. Even Kise chuckled.

Kagami's eyes widened in humiliation. "OI KUROKO! DON'T START WITH ME!" He points at her.

"Hey, hey. Why don't we start playing now? I can't have you pointing at Kurokocchi like that." Kise says, annoyance showing in his voice.

The atmosphere instantly flipped into a serious one.

"Let's go, then." Kagami says with a determined grin.

* * *

"Unbelievable." The coach comments.

"This can't be good." Kuroko adds, making the coach to turn her head to her.

"What do you mean, Kuroko-chan?" Coach Riko asks, curious, but not worried.

"You've probably heard of this already, but Kise-kun is good at copying moves." Kuroko states.

This confused the coach a bit. "Yes I've heard of it. But what about it?" She asks.

"I don't know either. Let's watch it then, coach." Kuroko says, pointing at the two who's starting on their one-on-one.

"Eh? O-okay then." The coach had a sweat dropping in an animated manner.

The one-on-one has just started. Kise is on offense while Kagami's the one guarding the basket. The blond started dribbling; his stance for offense is perfect and he wore an expression as that of a champion taking on a challenger. Kagami, too, has his stance perfect for defense.

In a flash, Kise started to move. As if a tape was being replayed, he did what Kagami just did earlier during their practice match. No one has realized it so far. He faked a set off to the right and without a split-second, he went to the left. And like earlier, the tiger managed to catch up to the blond who just dribbled past him.

And then it hit Kagami (and the coach)—Kise was going to do a sharp turn like he did. However, it was too late, as Kise jumped to get the ball in. Kagami still jumped to stop him, but his effort was futile. The blond dunked the ball in with one hand, and with the tiger's hand on the ball, trying to stop it from getting in which failed, he fell back and fell flat on his butt.

_He imitated my moves? _Kagami then started to think about what just happened. _He was quicker than me, and stronger, too._ He admits.

"Kise-kun learns plays the moment he sees them and makes them his own." Kuroko explains to the coach.

The coach nods, knowing immediately that it wasn't a simple imitation. It will become something better in the near future. "So this is the Generation of Miracles, huh?" She said.

"Yes. And I think they've become much stronger." Kuroko says, slightly worried. _It has been just a few months, too._

Kise looks at Kagami with a triumphant expression. "After something so disappointing, I can't just go now." He says. He then started walking to where Kuroko is standing. "I'm going to take Kurokocchi with me."

This makes the whole team's faces sprout confused reactions. "Eh?" Some of them utter.

"Kurokocchi, let's go. You should transfer to Kaijou immediately." He says, grabbing Kuroko by her left wrist, dragging her towards the exit. This made the Seirin boys kind of angry.

"Somebody stop Kise Ryouta! He can't just take Kuroko-chan! SHE'S OURS NOW!" Izuki shouts. Everyone was frozen. Repeat, everyone. Izuki was silent for quite a while, and then suddenly he's gone full retard shouting like that. But, uh, yeah it was motivating, since it made the other Seirin boys determined to take her back.

"Yours, huh? _She_…" And then Kise started to realize something. "YOU GUYS KNOW THAT KUROKOCCHI'S A GIRL!?" He immediately spared a glance at Kuroko. She's wearing manly practice attire, her hair is short, and her chest looks like it is being suppressed by bandages. He then became angry. "How did you know about that!?" His fists were tightened. _The only way they'd know is if Kurokocchi tells them, but it can't be! They might've peep…peeped on her!_

_"_EEHHHH?" _Now he's the one angry!? _Everyone thought in harmony.

"Kise-kun, please calm down." Kuroko says, Kise's hold on her wrist getting tighter.

"How can I calm down Kurokocchi? THESE GUYS ARE PEEPING TOMS—"

Kuroko covers Kise's mouth with her right hand. "I said, calm down."

This calms the blond down. He heaves a sigh.

"I told them about my real gender." She declares in a monotone voice.

"Eh? What?" The blond asks, exasperated. He then turns to the boys. "You guys knew, yet you let her stay?"

The Seirin team became speechless. Don't get them wrong, they know that their decision in taking her in was right. They just didn't know what to say. Not the coach, though. She knows what to say, but she wants to observe things for a while. Kagami, however, was about to say something but then…

"Kise-ku—"

"That's it, Kurokocchi, we're going." He pulls her again by the hand.

"Oi, Kise!" Kagami shouts, but it didn't stop the blond male. "You're hurting her!"

"Kise-kun, my wrist hurts." Kuroko flails her hand a bit.

The blond then felt guilty. He didn't mean to hurt her. He just wanted to protect her. "Sorry Kurokocchi." He slowly lets her hand go, looking at the ground.

"Kise-kun, thanks for worrying about me." The blond literally looks up to her, and she gives him a small but sincere smile. "But you see, I'm a part of this team now. I can't leave them. And they're not perverts like the Generation of Miracles." She announces to the world.

Kise was dumbstruck, and also Kagami.

The coach facepalms. _Not perverts, huh? _She looks at her retarded team who she knows are complete lecherous bastards. _And for Kuroko-chan to say in the open that the Generation of Miracles are perverts, they must've done something extremely shameless._ She thought, kinda disappointed at the Miracles. No, at the whole male population.

The Seirin boys found justice, though.

"Kuroko-san said we're not perverts~" The Idiot Trio said as one.

Hyuuga points to Kise. "You pervert! How dare you accuse us!" With this, Izuki, Koganei and Mitobe nodded desperately.

Kise became even more dumbstruck. "Kurokocchi… Why did you say that…" He says, still stunned.

"Eh? But it's true. I saw you guys watchi—" Kise covers her mouth with both hands.

"Kurokocchi! Don't just go announcing it to the world!" The blond says, flustered.

"Really, how dare you accuse someone when you're no better than them." Kagami says, folding his arms, judging the blond.

"Shut up, Kagami!" Kise retorts. He then observes the team. Their coach was beating the hell out of some of the boys. Two who looked like the captain and another shorter guy who Kise recognized as the guy who said Kuroko was theirs now, were trying to hide from the barbarian woman.

It's not a decent team at all. _I don't understand._ The blond thought. "But still, Kurokocchi. Why didn't you go to a better team? Winning was everything to us." He asks, not looking at her.

"I have changed my way of thinking." Kuroko says simply. "Besides, I promised Kagami-kun than we'll beat the Generation of Miracles."

"That's right, blondie. You heard her. She doesn't have a sense of humor, she's serious."

Kise can't help but sneeringly smile. Tomorrow. He'll get her tomorrow. He'll try his best-est. Because he knows he's got greater competition besides Seirin. They'll try and chase her, too, for sure.

* * *

It's been a long a day. Kise Ryouta's unexpected visit left her exhausted; now that she's in her room, she can rest. Lying like this, she can't help but reminisce about the past again. Kuroko then felt somewhat bad for Kise for turning him down. Not that she regrets her firm decision, though.

She unconsciously takes out her phone and dials Kise's number. She can hear his phone ringing on the other side of the line. A few more seconds later, the guy then picks up.

_"Kurokocchi? It's been a while since you called me! I'm so happy~"_ The blond immediately blabbers on the phone. _"I knew it, you miss me so bad!"_

"Not really Kise-kun. But I did call to ask you how you're feeling."

_"Eh? Of course I'm not feeling well. You just rejected my offer, you know."_ The blond says, half-joking.

"I'm sorry, Kise-kun. I have my reasons."

_"Sure, you do."_

"Do you still see them?"

_"I haven't, recently." _

"I see. But how were they when you last saw them?"

_"They're doing fine, I guess." _The blond pauses a bit. _"Akashicchi told me to look after you."_

Kuroko's taken aback by what Kise just told her. Akashi's worried about her? Like, seriously? Her fangirling mode's going to be unleashed. Just kidding.

_"But then again, it's not like he needed to tell me! I was planning that from the start, after all. Hehehe."_ The blond says, it was evident in his voice that he was kind of nervous.

"Thank you Kise-kun. Good night."

That night, Kuroko slept well.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry guys for many things! First, the late update (it's still Christmas Break and I slacked off T_T)! I'll try to update again before school starts again at January 5th. HUHU I WAS KINDA BUSY. Second, there's no AkaKuro in this chapter SORRY DIEHARD SHIPPERS T_T! I couldn't squeeze in a scene at this one. But atleast KIKURO FANS and SEIRINxKUROKO fans can REJOICE! ^o^ Third, I may or may not write a detailed match in the next chapters 'cause I'm not good at it. :/ But I'll still try, though. If ever it turns out trashy I won't hesitate to just summarize matches. Fourth, I didn't really like this chapter... You might not, too.**

**AngelTricks: **Yo~ Here's an update! Sorry if you waited long T^T Your suggestion is noted, don't worry! I kinda think it'll be fun for Murasakibara to be an overgrown baby. HAHAHA. XD Thank you for appreciating the last chapter! I'm glad I gave you a fuzzy feeling (or maybe it was really the coffee? :|). T^T (^_^)

**aimiera: **Sorry dear, I failed you. I didn't get to squeeze in an AkaKuro interaction… *cries* Well, about Skip Beat, I haven't seen it yet to be honest. ^^ But it does seem funny though especially the character you just mentioned. :D

Well, about Akashi… Well… Uhm. If I look at it, in a way, he kind of is. He's kind of suppressing his feelings for Kuroko so yeah. It's kind of being like a masochist. ^^ But he's a sadist when it comes to other people. FUFUFUFU

**shiskanae242: ***high five* I know right!? I like this side of Akashi too. The considerate one. :) But then again I'm sorry for this chapter didn't have an interaction. :(

**RedFoxKing: **That's really rare SassRanking huh! XD HAHAHA. LOL Sassprince and Sassprincess I SHIP IT! Oh yeah~ Here's the chapter… I tried to make it funnier than usual but. You be the judge! XD

**milefanis-cullen:** I don't speak Spanish, but I kind of get what you were saying. Or so I thought. XD But thanks for reviewing! Thank you soooo much~

**Kujo Kasuza: **You're kind words are really making me happy. T^T Yes, the moment I saw Kiseki they're like, the power rangers or something. HAHAHAHA! I'm glad it wasn't OOC! I was worried about it the whole time. Majority of the people sees Akashi as a sadist and a straightforward Yandere, I however, see him as a guy who's in-denial. HAHA. XD Yeah, I thought that scene was funny too! Well, everyone wants a piece of Kuroko here, so yeah! ^^

So there wasn't much flashback here… :| It was just Kise sorta having a throwback Thursday lol. XD YEAAAAH As usual he's so loving to her but she's just friends-friends with him. HAHAHA See ya on the next chapter! :)

**InsanityOwl: **Okaeri~ LOL JK! ^^ Actually, I plan Momoi to be paired up with Ahomine… So… Sorry if you're disappointed. T_T But still, Momoi will tease the other guys into getting Kuroko to be hers! That was my plan. XD

HOHO yes yes yes He's hopelessly in-love but like what another fellow reader (Kujo Kasuza-chan) said, he's too shy to admit it / And yes, Kuroko's milkshake gets the boys to the yard~ HAHA. Well, I have a different plan for the confessions thingy that's gonna happen later and I'm not gonna tell ya! FUFUFUFU! XD See you on the next chapter!

**Grace: **Thank you for your kind words! :) Yeah, that was my plan, really. XD Here you go, another chapter!

**Guest: **Here ya gooo~ :D Thanks for reviewing!

**Analanat: **Thanks you for saying that. T_T Here's an update! :)

**THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR F&amp;Fing MY FIC! I'm GRATEFUL. SEE YOU AGAIN~**


	7. 5: A Match and An Idiot

**Warnings: **Profanities. A bit of OOCs. Me Bullying characters. XD

* * *

**Chapter 5 **

* * *

_For the first time in months, Kuroko slept well, but it was a different story for Kagami and Kise._

_Kagami didn't get any sleep at all—he was too excited for the practice match against Kaijou, or more like, against Kise. It sounded stupid, but he really did that for real. Kise, on the other hand, slept late, wondering if his words during their phone conversation somehow reached Kuroko. If you know what he means._

_But poor him, it reached Kuroko, but not the words he himself said, instead, the news he brought her about a certain redhead asking him to take care of her secretly did. So, it's his own fault. _

_BA-KA._

* * *

With bloodshot eyes and super-duper-large bags under it, Kagami walked like a zombie. He only realized now how much he needed his bed, his pillows, his blanket, his bed—oh yes his bed. His teammates' excitement and anxiety didn't help at all, as he regrets letting go of the time he had to sleep. But unfortunately for him, sleep's far away in today's schedule.

Today is the day for Seirin and Kaijou's practice match. Seirin, being new and all, had no choice but to agree to Kaijou's conditions before they agree to practice with them. And one of those conditions is that, they'll be the ones to travel all the way to Kanagawa Prefecture for the said event. Duh, Kaijou, being a prestigious high school means they have to do their very best just to make them say 'yes'.

Kuroko is bored. Sure, she is looking forward to the practice match, but walking for about ten minutes now from the train station, she is kind of bored.

"Kagami-kun, you look like you went to war last night." Kuroko obnoxiously commented.

_"_Shut it, Kuroko." Kagami says, not in the mood to bicker with her right now.

"What happened to you?" She asks, not giving in. Somehow she likes to pick a fight with Kagami. _It's fun._ She thought.

"I wasn't able to sleep even a bit last night." He says dismissingly.

"Oh." She utters, looking at Kagami. She noted how stupid his face looked like. And then she thought of something again. "You were that excited? What are you, a kid going on a field trip?"

Kagami snaps. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

"I was kidding, Kagami-kun." She hurriedly interjects in a monotone voice. Kagami regains his composure.

"Tch."

And then Seirin finally reaches Kaijou High School. They entered its prominent school grounds without hesitation. The members of Seirin looked around as they walked around the campus. They saw how Kaijou is committed to sports. Their facilities were all in tip-top shape as if it were all new, which means they give it a lot of attention and care.

While being engrossed on the look-around, a certain blond is running towards them.

"Well, if it isn't Seirin!" Kise Ryouta calls out to the team. "I came to get you guys; this school's pretty big. Better not have you guys lost before our match starts."

"Thank you." Coach Riko shows appreciation.

Kagami then started walking towards the blond male. "Oi, Kise—"

Kise ignores the tiger and walks past him. "Kurokocchi!" He greets, smiling down at the blunette.

"Kise-kun." Kuroko greets back.

"You know what Kurokocchi, I feel relieved that you called me last night!" Kise chirps, surprising Kuroko's team. "But still I felt so bad for myself after you rejected me…" He pinches the bridge of his nose, eyes closed. Yes, he's trying to look cool.

"What's wrong with this guy?" Hyuuga rhetorically asks.

"It's as if this is a gender-bender shoujou manga or something…" Izuki says, whispering to Hyuuga. He was referring to Kuroko's cross-dressing and the blond's behavior. The glasses-wearer just nods in agreement.

"Good grief." The coach comments.

"Oi, just show us the way!" Kagami snaps for the second time.

It seems that the blond ignored him again as he was still continuing his little nitpicks at how Kuroko always kept on ignoring his feelings. "No girl has ever turned me down before! Just you, Kurokocchi!" He whines.

"Kami-sama, please spare my team from being contaminated with idiocy…" The coach sighs.

"Kise-kun, please stop being sarcastic." Kuroko says in a serious tone.

"Eh? But I'm being serious…" Kise yelps nervously. Of course he's not being sarcastic, Kuroko knows it, too. But the only way to make the blond shut up was to threaten him. Yep.

Kuroko sighs. Kise has always had a mentality of a kid (rivaling that of a certain purple-haired to some extent), until now. But even so, his personality has always been pleasant; except maybe when facing people who he doesn't trust or like, and even more when facing opponents on the court.

"Alright, Kise-kun. But please remember that I won't leave Seirin no matter what." She says in a monotone voice.

The blond looked dejected. "I see." But he wasn't giving up. He looks at Kagami. "Now I'm curious about the guy who makes Kurokocchi say things like that." He started walking towards the tiger with a face that says, _'I'm-gonna-smash-yo-face-in-a-brick-wall-or-somethin'_, with a hint of _'you're-no-match-for-a-prince-like-me' _look.

Kise walks past the tiger. "I don't really care about being called a 'Miracle', but I can't ignore such an obvious challenge. I'm not mature enough to let it slide." The blond challenges, now looking at the tiger. "Sorry, but I'm gonna crush you with all I've got."

Kagami just smiles with content, not losing to the blond. "Glad to know you got your head on the A-game. Bring it on, then, blondie."

* * *

"This is it." Kise says, almost sounding like a tour guide. He finally brought the Seirin team to Kaijou's basketball stadium.

The stadium is large, as expected from a school that's devoted to athletics. It's _almost_ twice as big as their stadium back at Seirin. But what disturbed them the most is that, when they arrived, there was very large net in the middle of the court, splitting it into two smaller ones. They all started to go inside.

"We're playing on half a court?" Coach Riko asks rhetorically, full of suspicion. "The other side's being used for practice?" _If this is what I think this is, I won't forgive them._ She thought, fuming. No one dares underestimate her team, or else… Prepare for a battle of life and death.

A fat guy with short—no, almost-shaved-up beard then walks into the scene while Kise ran off somewhere. Turns out, fat guy was Kaijou's coach. "Oh, you're here. Welcome." He said in a bored tone. "I'm Coach Takeuchi." He introduced himself.

The fat-n'-scruffy coach then takes a good look at Seirin. They're a small team with exactly ten members having a female 'manager'. He started to look at them carefully from left to right… _Where the hell is their coach? _Fatty thought, immediately asking, "Where's your coach?", afterwards.

Despite being pissed off at the moment, Aida Riko remained professional and kept her mean streak to a minimum. She raised her hand, saying, "It's me!", keeping her cheerful character present, even if it meant to tear her pride apart—since she was the one who 'begged' for the practice match, after all. You know what they say, _no pain, no gain_. Does that even make sense? Well, she doesn't care.

The fat coach Takeuchi-san didn't seem to buy it, although it was the perfect truth. Little did he know that the _"only" _rose among thorns is a complete work-out and basketball genius. "You!? You're not the manager!?" He screams through the stadium.

_Ugh._ Coach Riko thought, annoyed. "I'm Aida Riko, coach of Seirin! We look forward to playing with Kaijou Basketball Team today!" She bowed, introducing herself and showing humility the normal and cheerful way. Only Hyuuga and Izuki knows how great an actress she really is—Koganei, Mitobe and Tsuchida are still _'getting used to it'._

"Uh, yeah." The fat coach mutters.

"So…" Riko starts looking around the stadium, as if she's not aware about Kaijou's arrangement, even though she practically knows by now. She's being nice for real, in fact, this is her way of sparing a man's life—if she knows her team is being underestimated by anyone, death awaits them... in her mind, at least. "…um, what's this?" She innocently asks.

"Exactly what it looks like." The fat coach says. Riko made a murderous face inside her mind. "We've only made simple arrangements for today's practice match."

"Simple arrangements?" Riko bashfully asked, even though inside her mind, she was beating the shit out of the fat coach already.

"We can't waste time. There won't be much to learn from this game to make it worth watching for the guys sitting out, so I'm making them practice as usual while the practice match is happening." Fatty says it as blunt as he can.

If earlier Riko was imagining of beating the shit out of the pig, now, she was roasting him after she skinned him alive in her mind. What a morbid mind for young lady.

The fat coach then looks at the clipboard he's holding. "Despite the arrangements, you'll be playing our regulars." He then looks to Seirin's _'coach'. _"Don't let them triple your score." He says in an uncaring manner and then turns away in a second.

Forget skinning the pig alive or roasting him. Riko was dissecting his mid-part and pulling his guts out in her mind now. She suddenly snaps out of the daydream, remembering how it will affect her team's morale. She looked at her team, and sees that they are overly calm, though she can tell that they all want to show the pig who's boss.

"They think we're nothing, huh." Kagami Taiga snaps, but still remaining as calm as possible. "They think we're just sideshow to their practice."

The words reach Kuroko, who's more than annoyed despite her cool, silent façade. It's good she has numb facial nerves and weak-presence which makes it possible for her to not show _much_ emotion to anyone. She smiled a bit at Kagami's words, liking his competitive spirit.

Kise, on the other hand, was so happy. He just finished putting on his jersey and is currently walking on the way to Seirin. His fat coach stops him and he suddenly asked, "Kise, why are you on your uniform?", as if it wasn't obvious why.

"Eh? Coach, did you get sick or something? I'm wearing a jersey because I'm going to play, of course!" Kise says cheerfully.

"You idiot, you're not supposed to play!" Fatty exclaims. Oh, so that was why.

"Hah?" Kise asks, dumbstruck.

"Our regulars are already too tough for Seirin. Plus, you're on a whole different level!"

Kise looks around apprehensively, embarrassed and concerned about Seirin and his teammates hearing what his coach just said. "Coach, seriously! Stop saying things like that!" He whispers almost too loudly at the fat guy.

"If I let you play it won't be a game anymore," was Fatty's last words before walking away, dismissing his discussion with the blond.

Kise looks at Seirin, still concerned and apprehensive.

"Just listen to him talk." An angry but still composed Hyuuga says, glaring right at the fat coach of Kaijou.

"I haven't been _this_ pissed in a while." Izuki adds, with the same angry glint in his eyes like that of Hyuuga's. If you look closely, it's not just the two—all of them had those eyes.

The blond prodigy runs immediately to where Seirin stood. He heaves a sigh when he gets to them. Seirin admits, he looked kinda cool. "I'm sorry about that." But then his juvenile side appeared right after, making him look as if he shrank into a five-year-old kid. "I REALLY AM!" His face became flooded with tears, he turns to Kuroko, kneeling. "Kurokocchi! Forgive meeeeee (my coach)!"

All people on the court sweat dropped. _Is this really a prodigy/high schooler/model? _They all thought.

"I REALLY WANT TO PLAAAAAAAY!" He continued to let out fifty-percent real and fifty-percent fake tears, which made the fat coach snap a vein. Fifty-percent real because he really does feel bad about his coach's comments and that he's not gonna play, and fifty-percent fake because, hello, it's Kise Ryouta we're talking about—an award-winning second-rate actor. Perhaps he learned to copy actors when he watches television. Er, whatever. But his tears aren't bluffs, for sure.

"Eh? Do I know you?" Kuroko pretends to not know the blond because he's so embarrassing. The Seirin boys all held back a laugh, earning a death glare from their evil queen coach.

"Kurokocchi's always so mean to me! Whyyyyyyy!?" The blond whines. Suddenly, a powerful kick landed on his back, causing him to get knocked to the—uh, net. Kise reminds himself to thank whoever ordered to put the gigantic net there later.

"Oi, Kise! Shut up and just lead them to the locker rooms! We'll see what they can really do in the match." Kaijou's point guard and captain, Kasamatsu Yukio says, who seems to be a natural '_Kise tormenter'_ aside from Kuroko and the rainbow troop (including Nijimura Shuzo).

"A _kicking_ action… then a _kicking_ comment, huh." Izuki the pun master interjects.

"Oh brother." Riko says.

"Lame." Koganei adds.

Mitobe nods, agreeing with the cat-like boy.

"Go die." Hyuuga adds.

Tsuchida's sweat dropped.

The first-years felt kinda bad for their senpai.

"What the heck, guys! You hurt my feelings! And Hyuuga, that was too harsh!" Izuki exclaims, hurt.

Now, it's Kaijou's turn to have a sweat dropping from their foreheads.

Captain Kasamatsu of Kaijou's basketball team motions Kise to lead Seirin to the locker room already. Like, right now, or else, he's gonna get kicked. The blond just nods, scared.

Wearing the usual cheerful and welcoming facial expression, the blond turns to Seirin again. "A-ano… Just give my teammates a beating, and the coach will probably put me in. Besides…" The expression on his started to intensify, his gaze turning to Kagami Taiga. "…if you can't even do as much as that, the probability of you defeating the Generation of Miracles will most likely be zero." Whatever happened to leading them to the locker room?

Seirin eyed the blond prodigy who might actually have split-personalities.

"CAN YOU JUST TELL US WHERE THE LOCKER ROOM IS IMMEDIATELY, PLEASE." Coach Riko half-shouts, with a fake innocent smile plastered on her face. The boys of Seirin all stood straight next to the evil queen. No one dares make her mad.

_Scary. _Kise and Kasamatsu thought together.

"That's why I told you to lead them earlier!" Kasamatsu whispers to Kise, then suddenly elbowing him in the face. "Uh, the locker room is just a few meters to the right after you go outside the stadium. You'll see it immediately." He says to the coach of Seirin.

Kise looked dumbfounded after realizing he took too much time trying to engage in an intense "chat" with the Seirin boys.

Kuroko seemed to notice this, which made her stifle a mocking laugh. "It's okay Kise-kun, focus on warming up." She started walking behind her teammates who are already walking. "There's no time to waste."

"Right." The blond says with determination on his face.

* * *

"Seirin, please have your five starters line up." A game official says.

"Uhm, we're already five." Kuroko says, startling everyone in stadium except her teammates. If this was any other day though, her teammates wouldn't realize her presence, which kinda upsets our Kuroko-sama.

_"What the hell?"_

_"He's got no presence."_

_"He's one of their starters?"_

Murmurs can be heard from various players of Kaijou.

"He's right in front of me, and I didn't even notice him." Kobori Kouji, one of Kaijou's regulars, says to his teammates. "What about you, Kasamatsu?"

"Me neither." Kasamatsu answers. He then looks closely at the person who startled everyone with _his_ weak presence. "And just look at him, he's not muscular at all." He whispers to Kobori.

"He's quite feminine if you ask me." Moriyama Yoshitaka, another regular of Kaijou's team, adds.

Kobori and Kasamatsu couldn't agree more.

"After all their boasting, I thought they'd have some decent players. How ridiculous." Kaijou's fat coach who's sitting at the bench comments.

Kise, who's not going to play for a while, observes all of his teammates and coach's reactions, and is quite amused by their different opinions of Kuroko. "You might be right." He said to his coach while watching the blunette closely. "After all, they're _not just _decent." He says, barely audible for his fat coach to hear.

With the game almost starting, all of the players went to their positions.

"Ouch." Koganei hears Riko the coach mutter beside him.

"What's wrong, coach?" He asks.

"Kaijou's physical numbers are really above average, huh. I wish I can see through their clothes…" She mumbles, but still audible enough for Koganei to hear.

_That sounded wrong on so many levels._ Koganei thought, sweat dropping. But of course, he knows exactly what his coach was trying to say; that it will be much easier for her to measure what Kaijou can do when she knows their exact numbers. Well, at least that's what he thought. After all, Koganei has good judgment in many domains, too. And he can say that Kagami and Kuroko have what it takes to win against Kaijou… somehow.

The tipoff started. With Kobori and Kagami on it, it was not easy to predict who'll get the ball, but because of the slight height difference between the two, Kaijou got the ball first.

Kasamatsu, Kaijou's point guard, dribbled the ball, directing his team to get the game in control. But as he was so busy analyzing the situation, the ball suddenly got taken away by a ghost. Or is it just Kuroko?

It's Kuroko indeed. And gosh Kasamatsu was _really_ taken by surprise by the sudden steal. Kuroko continued to run with the ball.

"Where did he come from!?" The point guard and captain of Kaijou exclaimed while running his fastest run, trying to catch up to the invisible player.

In a matter of seconds, Kasamatsu did catch up to the ghost. _He's slow!_ He thought, relieved. As he was about to either stop Kuroko or steal the ball, the ghost suddenly halted dribbling. As if the time went slow, the ghost made a back pass, effortlessly.

Kagami, who was behind the point guard of Kaijou, caught the ball and immediately dunked it.

Everyone was baffled, surprised, or whatever. They weren't expecting someone from a no-name school to be able to do a dunk like that. Kagami finally got down from the hoop, no—WITH the hoop. He broke it.

"HE DESTROYED THE HOOP!" Various baffled comments started to spread amongst the court.

"One of that thing's bolts was rusted and now it's busted." Izuki says nonchalantly.

"Even so, what _he _did was not normal!" Kasamatsu exclaims to the the point guard of Seirin.

"No one ever appreciates my jokes." Izuki whispered to himself, disappointed. Perhaps, he meant no one gets his jokes, right?

"This thing's bigger than I thought." Kagami says, examining the hoop he just pulled out from its headboard.

On the other hand, coach Riko was saying her 'apologies' to the fat coach Takeuchi about the accident. _Heh, that's what you get for underestimating us._ She thought, her words and expressions contradicting what's in her mind.

"We're so sorry about the hoop." Kuroko apologizes to the coach of Kaijou, lowering her head. "Since we can't continue the game like this, can we use the full court?"

The fat coach of Kaijou is mad; looks like he wasn't expecting this to happen. He didn't know what to say at the moment.

"Calm down, coach." Kise tells him. "So, are you putting me in now?"

The coach calms down just like what the blond asked him to do. With things going on a haywire like this, the only solution is...

"Alright, you're in."

* * *

And with that, the match was about to resume with the blond prodigy taking part in the game. He stood there, now wearing Kaijou's glorious jersey. He somehow felt different from when he was wearing normal practice attire. Now, he felt too intense. Coach Riko agrees, his physical numbers and presence is really very high. He's a monster.

"Oh, he's in now. He's way too intense now compared to being his model self." Hyuuga says.

"He's not just putting on a show." Kuroko warns her teammates. She then looks at Kise. "He's for real."

"We know that!" Kagami snaps.

Suddenly, loud fangirl squeals filled the room.

_"Kyaaaaa!"_

_"Kise-kun's so hot!"_

_"Waaah! He's so cool!"_

It irritated most of the people there. Especially Kasamatsu. Even more so when the blond idiot starts waving back to them, as if making all the boys pale in comparison to him in, well, almost everything.

"The heck!?" Hyuuga exclaims, bewildered by the squeals.

"This always happens when that blond show-off is playing. Annoying as hell." Kasamatsu informs the fellow captain. And then he snapped after seeing how long he's been waving to the girls. Kise was kicked with an outstanding kick. "I told you to stop waving to them!"

"That hurt, senpai!" Kise whines.

Kasamatsu then whispers to the blond. "Do you understand what's going on here, Kise? Who the heck is number 10?"

"Number 10?" He asks rhetorically, looking for a Seirin jersey with the number 10 printed on it. He spots a certain flame-haired player. "Oh. It's Kagami. Kagami Taiga, from what I've heard."

"Kagami Taiga? I've never heard of him."

"Forget about him." Kise says to his captain, serious. "Number 11 is the real deal."

Kasamatsu made a solemn expression, taking in what happened earlier. And yes, number 11 was something else, appearing out of nowhere and effortlessly stealing the ball from him, even though he is always aware of his surroundings.

Before the captain of Kaijou can ask a question, Kise started talking again. "That's Kurokocchi, my teammate from Teiko. Isn't she amazing?" Kise fanboys.

"Hn." Kasamatsu then processed what he just heard. _She?_ He then slaps the blond idiot, "What are you so happy about! And idiot, it's a _he _not a _she_! _Idiot_." He emphasized 'idiot' a lot.

Kise mentally slapped himself. That was close! _I almost revealed Kurokocchi's secret! _"R-right!"

Suddenly, Kise felt a menacing aura from the spectators' area. It was a distinct feeling, and he felt it only once in his life, and this, was the second. The feeling of this anger was only emitted by _one person._ The blond can always distinguish different menacing auras from different people, strangely, people do emit auras uniquely. _No, not Akashicchi. _He is sure.

He turns his head to see who it was, and he spots… a familiar person on the bleachers. Familiar is not the right word to use, though. He knew this person very well. This person who's wearing a black uniform, his fingers taped, is clutching a toy frog, and is wearing glasses—is the shooting guard of Teiko—one of the Generation of Miracles.

Midorima Shintarou.

He then looks at a teammate, who apparently, has been calling him out for a while now. "Oi, Kise, looks like an important call, here! Just finish fast. The match is about to resume." The person said, tossing the phone to the blond.

Kise catches his phone and flips it open, not bothering to look at the screen. _It's probably Midorimacchi._ He then answers the call, putting the phone to his ear, looking at the greenhead. And nope, the greenhead wasn't holding a phone to his ear.

Uh-oh. It was too late, he already answered the call. He then hears a familiar cold and commanding voice, its tone threatening and timbre dangerous.

_"I hope you're not troubling Tetsuna with your idiocy, Ryouta. Watch out for the flying chinawares Shintarou's about to throw at you."_

Before it's Midorima, and now, it's Akashi. Kise really, really wants to cry— he's in the middle of a match, too. Just why?

* * *

**A/N: SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE MINNA-SAN! T_T I was busy with school, and I kinda got sick in the past few days, so I haven't updated for a while. Gomenasai! And there ya go. Another chap! ****HUHUHU. (Why am I always not satisfied?) Don't mind me... I'm just on a pessimistic streak rn.**

**Guest # 1: **Whoa! Good assumptions! XD Though I can't reveal any for now. But hey, Kuroko and Akashi does like each other, but they don't know about what the other feels for them, so yeah. Thanks for reviewing~ :D (Please continue to!)

**Analanat: **I'm glad you liked the fourth chapter! :) Yes, Kuroko's supposed to tease Izuki a lot here. XD Here, another update! Sorry for being late tho!

**RedFoxKing: **Sorry for making you wait! OTL HAHA! I like it when the other boys get jealous at Izuki, or other cuties like Kise and Himuro. LOL XD WAAAH! That's great, I hope the same happens to AkaKuro, you know, for Fujimaki-sensei to end Extra Game with Kuroko and Akashi getting together. JUST KIDDING. But not really.

Our Tetsuna probably knows something about the incident… Or a certain redhead…

**AngelTricks: **Good suggestions! I'll try adding those up. I like nosebleeds, so yeah! XD

Well, my problem is, really, writer's block, and time. So, I won't be able to update as much now. Perhaps three times in a month? I think so.

And yes! I've been talking to a beta-reader now. :)) Thanks! Here, an update~ Sorry again for the long wait OTL

**shiskanae242: **Thank you soooo much! T_T I'm glad you like my humor. XD HAHAHA. Please do review again for this chapter, if you like. :) Sorry for the long wait, too! OTL

**Kujo Kasuza: **I'm glad you liked it! X) HOHO. Yes, I want this to be a bit harder for both of them, because it makes the romance more exciting! XD Plus, Akashi has to struggle together with her fanboys first, before he can claim her. HAHAHA!

Kise being annoying and all, I had to emphasize it in my fic, since this is a rom-com after all. I love Seirin which is why I like to torture them (by using Kuroko-sama)! LOL XD As for HyuugaRikoKiyoshi, hmmm. I haven't decided yet. I ship Hyuuga and Riko, but I love Kiyoshi, too! I don't want him to become heartbroken… so I guess I'll decide later.

Kuroko and Akashi are in-like with each other. That's for sure. But they're afraid to tell each other… they're both kind of in-denial, but Akashi has his own way of keeping her close to him. He kinda "shows" it by asking (or threatening) the GoM (as of now, Kise and Midorin) to look after her. And Kuroko… doesn't show it much, so other people doesn't know who she likes, but you can see how much she thinks about him. XD

I still had the urge to answer your questions 'cause heck I like to blabber. It's just few info, so it's okay. Thanks for your long reviews! It fires me up! :) See you again next chap! Sorry for the long wait! XD

**TECKK:** Thanks for your reviews! Sorry for the long wait! XD

**Guest # 2:** Thank you for your kind words T_T I'm glad you liked the whole perverted Seirin boys and GoM thing! XD Please do review again. :) Sorry for the long wait! OTL

**aewea: **Hello! Thanks for your compliments! :') Um, well, Murasakibara loves her… as a sister (or mother) only, though. :) As for AkaKuro, yes, this will end up as AkaKuro, but there are other one-sided pairings, too. (KiKuro, MidoKuro, KagaKuro, etc.) Plus, some side AoMomo and HyuugaRikoKiyoshi sandwich. XD

Thanks for reviewing (please continue if you like)! :) And sorry for making you wait! XD

**Jay Dawn: **Thank you for your motivating reviews! I'm glad you liked it! Wow, I love you too~ :') And here you go! Another chappie~ Sorry for the long wait! XD

**akakuro:** Belated happy new year, too, akakuro-san! XD Here you go~ :) Sorry for the long wait! T_T

**Guest # 3: **Here you go, Guest-san! An update! :3 Sorry for the long wait~

**Lovely Girl 016: **Thank you for saying my fic is cute! XD I hope you like this one! XD Sorry for making you wait. :D

**Rikari-chan: **Rika-chaaaan! Here's an update after so many days. LOL I was so busy! XD HAHAHA. Thank you for your kind words! Well, I can only say I'm glad it was funny enough! Hope you like this one, too! :3

**AGAIN Thank you guys! And sorry for the long wait. XD Thanks for F&amp;Fing~ Ja ne! XD**


	8. 6: Of Chinawares and Bad Luck

**Warnings: **Profanities. OOC. All scenes not present in KnB? I'm not sure lol. You have been warned!

* * *

**Chapter 6**

* * *

_Kise Ryouta has failed his job of defending his territory. Meaning, he can't even protect himself from Midorima's set of chinawares of doom and Akashi's evil schemes inside his own school._

_It was unfortunate for Kise, that during a match someone had to bring chinawares—because the blond is chinaware phobic. No one knows how he got that phobia, or the fact that a fear like that even existed. Now he's a shaking mess, and during a game, too._

_Midorima feels bad for Kise, believe him. He was just ordered to bring chinawares by a certain redhead, that is all._

* * *

With the clock just counting down at 4:00 in the first quarter, Seirin and Kaijou's scores are already 29-28 respectively.

"We're doing well? And we're ahead?" Koganei of Seirin asks, worrying. When all goes too well, he normally starts to worry.

"Yeah... What's Kise Ryouta doing?" Coach Riko said, sharing the same grim expression as that of Koganei's.

No one can blame the two for being worried; their team's going to carry the burden if ever things go wrong and lose because of something like this, after all.

The ball is with Kaijou's point guard Kasamatsu at the moment, but he couldn't make a pass to Kise since the guy was acting weird today. Actually, wierder than usual. At that moment of hesitation, Hyuuga was able to steal the ball form the guy.

Seirin's captain immediately passed the ball to Kuroko, which she instantly passed to Mitobe. The voiceless guy made hook shot which scored them a two-pointer.

"Aren't things going a bit too easy?" Hyuuga asks Kuroko, referring to how the Generation of Miracles member, Kise Ryouta was performing.

Kuroko looks at Kise. She sees how the blond kept on looking at the bleachers warily. "I think so, too." _What's wrong with him?_ She thought, but shrugged it off. Maybe she's just seeing things.

"Better not let our guard down, they might just be preparing for something that will be very difficult for us to counter." Hyuuga says to his teammates.

"Yes, captain!" All of them except Mitobe says back. Everyone went back to their positions.

"Oi, Kuroko." Kagami calls.

"Yes?"

"What's with Kise? I mean, he looks... bad."

_So I'm not seeing things._ She thought. But knowing Kise, she decided that it'd be best to not let anyone know that something's wrong for now. "What do you mean, Kagami-kun? I think Kise-kun's good-looking. After all he's a model." She deadpanned.

"That's not what I meant! I mean, just look at him!" Kagami exclaims, annoyed and exasperated.

Kuroko turns to look at the blond. "He's still good-looking as usual."

Kagami facepalms. "Nevermind!"

Meanwhile...

"Ee-eek!" A shaking blond skrieks with exasperation.

Kaijou's point guard and captain, Kasamatsu, also noticed this. _What the hell is this idiot's problem?_ He thought. Earlier, he told Kise to return Seirin's quite astonishing greeting, but it seems as though the blond's head is not in the game, and he failed returning the "favor". He looked like a retarded quacking rubber-ducky mumbling inaudible words before that, too. And, it looks like the blond was anticipating to dodge something that may fly to his face any moment.

"Oi, Kise! Get your head in the game, you get it!?" He yells. "You better—"

The captain of Kaijou halts after taking a closer look at the blond. He looked as white as a sheet, shaking, and staring at space. Little did he know that there's a carrot lurking somewhere over there and is threatening the blond with his… chinawares of doom.

Even Kuroko isn't aware of Midorima's presence. But she can tell that Kise's not himself today.

"Ch-china…" Kise who is just standing and doing nothing mutters the inaudible sound again, seeing the chinawares of malevolence sitting beside Midorima Shintarou.

Meanwhile, at the bleachers...

The greenhead sitting on the upper bleachers lets out a sigh. Despite appearing with quite a villain-y entrance, Midorima isn't a bad person. He actually has no intention of throwing the chinawares at the poor blond. He's just holding on for dear life. Akashi simply _ordered _him to bring these things, and he's simply _following _the guy, to live on and be safe. Everybody knows the redhead's orders are absolute. That is all.

And oh, yes, he got angry because of the blond's idiocy, too. The greenhead just couldn't take it—the blond almost revealed Kuroko Tetsuna's secret! But that doesn't mean he's going to kill the blond or anything, or that he likes Kuroko or cares about her or something like that, he's telling you.

He then sees Kuroko trying to talk to Kise. It seems like she's asking him what's wrong. It looks like the blond somehow regained his head and calmed down a little. _As expected of Kuroko. Wait, what am I thinking?_ The greenhead thought.

"YOU BASTARD OF A TSUNDERE!" A raven-haired guy with gray eyes angrily said, muffled. As much as he wants to make a scene and shout at the greenhead with all his might, he couldn't. He still has control over his emotions after all.

"Takao, don't cause a fuss, nanodayo." The greenhead says, eyes closed.

Takao Kazunari is Midorima's currently most trusted companion. Apparently, the greenhead ditched him on a traffic jam, leaving him alone to "drive" their rear car. "I KNOW! I'M RESTRAINING MYSELF AREN'T I?"

A sigh can be heard. "Just shut up, nanodayo."

"TCH." The raven-haired sits beside the greenhead, and in an instant, he was able to calm down. "So, who is this person you care about so much that you even tried to kill me just to 'drive' you all the way here?" He looks at the court and witnesses a very high-paced play, and unexpectedly, a no-name school, which he knows is named Seirin, is managing to catch-up with Kaijou. But heck, why is Kaijou the one calling for a time-out now?

"Don't be ridiculous, Takao. As if I would do something idiotic as that. I was ordered to watch, that is all." He says, still watching the situation on the court.

"Heh… But you looked too desperate after hearing which school Kaijou's up against." Takao says, smirking, attention diverted to finding out why Midorima came to watch the game.

"…"

"Hah, I knew it! I better find her, better find her, better find her~" The raven-haired singsongs. He's quite good at reading the greenhead's reactions.

"Takao." The greenhead says in a dangerous tone, attention completely diverted to Takao.

"Ooh~ Is little Shin-chan angry? So I was right, your squeeze is in Seirin~" Takao continues to tease the tsundere.

"S-squeeze?"

"Hoho. You don't even know what that means? Why, you're so old, Shin-chan~"

"Shut up, nanodayo."

"Like I would shut up, Shin-chan. You know how I do things~" The raven-haired refuses to back down.

Midorima sighs for the umpteenth time. "Fine, I'll tell you why I had to do this."

"While you're at it, why don't tell me why Kise Ryouta is like that." He points to the white-as-sheet Kise. "I have a feeling that you did this, Shin-chan."

"..."

"See, my hunch is always right."

"Fine."

* * *

There is a sound of a phone ringing. A certain tsundere, with hair green as tree leaves and envy and uniform as black as Aomine-when-the-lights-are-all-out-in-the-middle-of-the-night, is carrying a toy frog (which might be his lucky item), and is about to answer the ringing phone which was actually his. He flips his apple green-colored phone and looks at the caller ID. _Akashi Seijuro._ Better answer or else you'll be killed before you know it. Akashi is capable of hiring an assassin, so it might just be true.

"Akashi." Midorima Shintarou says to the redhead on the other line. "What did you call me for?"

_"Shintarou, you sound like you don't want to talk to me. Don't worry; I myself _loathe_ talking to you." _Akashi replies naturally.

"…"

_"I will be very direct. Go and watch Ryouta's practice match." _Still as straightforward and aggressive as ever.

Midorima started reminiscing how his life became easier after Middle School until… this very moment Akashi Seijuro called him via phone. He remembered how his former captain kept on torturing his mind and kept on ordering him around. Especially when he _changed; _things got worse then. The redhead started driving him insane with his orders and tortures. Funny, the orders were somewhat trivial and insignificant yet very difficult. And who knows what could have happened if he didn't do as the redhead said back then?

The greenhead thought he was now free—free from the Red Demon's clutches, since he's out of the redhead's team now… or so he thought.

But he's not going to be ordered around anymore. Nope. After a split-second deliberation, he finally says, "Don't order me around, Akashi. I'm no longer under your jurisdiction." There, he says it. But why does he feel like it didn't work?

Midorima can just feel the redhead smirking on the other line. _"Oh, is that so? Let me enlighten you again, then. Whether you live or die after this depends on me. To be more precise, depends on how this order I'm giving you turns out."_ This makes the greenhead gulp a little. His hunch was right after all.

"…"

_"Hn?" _The redhead on the other line is already embracing his victory.

"I… I'll carry it out." The greenhead's got no choice. His life was in line.

This time, Midorima can feel Akashi applauding himself, mentally, at least. _"Good." _

"But before anything else, I want to know why you're desperately trying to send me to Kise's match."

_"Enough questions, Shintarou. You'll know why when you get there." _Akashi Seijuro says hurriedly. _"Oh, and don't forget to bring Ryouta's treasured items."_

_T-treasure? _The greenhead sweat dropped. He knows what Akashi meant, and by 'treasured' items, he actually meant 'loathed' items.

Those things are a pain to bring around, but better safe than sorry.

"Alright."

* * *

"Get the picture?" The greenhead asks, tired from talking.

"Whoa Shin-chan! I didn't know you're a great storyteller." Takao says sarcstically, teasing the greenhead.

"…"

"But hey, that was a pain!"

The greenhead pushed his glasses back up. "It is."

Takao tsk-tsks, then suddenly remembering something. "Oi, Shin-chan."

"What now, nanodayo?"

"What about the story about Kise and why he's acting like _that _earlier_?_" The raven-haired then points to the chinawares beside Midorima. "Does it have something to do with _that_?"

Midorima squinted his eyes at his friend. _So this idiot really thinks I'm a storyteller_. He thought. "Yes, it has something to do with _this._ But I can't tell you the complete details."

"Eh? Why not?"

"Because all I know is that, he extremely dreads chinawares_. _But I don't know why or how he has come to dread it."

"I don't get it."

"Of course you don't, nanodayo." _Even I, don't understand why things ended up like this._ The greenhead thought.

Suddenly, a whistle from a game official can be heard. Kaijou asked for a time-out again, all because of how Kise Ryouta dropped his balls again.

The two spectators from Shutoku High heard someone scream to the blond. "OI, KISE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ARE YOU REALLY THIS WEAK? I'M SO FUCKING DISAPPOINTED!" It was a tall guy from Seirin, having the intensity of a tiger, and hair flaming red, almost looking like a lame hairdo.

"Oooh. This will be fun~" Says a grinning Takao.

Midorima just rolled his eyes at his companion's comment.

* * *

After Kagami's sudden eruption, Kuroko, Hyuuga, Izuki, Mitobe, Kasamatsu and the rest of the Kaijou regulars halted from their strides. The two coaches and the people on the benches watched intently. The game officials are about to stop the farce, but it seems as though they couldn't move. Paralyzed, perhaps? Someone stopped the game clock, since everyone in the court is absentminded about the game.

Even Kasamatsu couldn't just tell the blond off, since he wasn't sure what happened to him. He felt that there is something wrong with Kise, but he can't just casually ask him then comfort him (or scold him), because the reason he might be acting that way may have been something serious. They've known each other for a only few weeks, so he believed he wasn't on the right position to do so.

_What do you know!? _The blond mentally answers back to Kagami. _You weren't the one who… experienced it… _Kise just kept his head lowered. He couldn't face anyone; he felt ashamed of himself. This weird phobia of his—is the reason why he'll lose. For Kise, that is extremely shameful. But despite knowing these, he still couldn't do anything. Images of what happened in the past started appearing in his head again.

"Kagami-kun, please calm down." Kuroko says, putting a hand at the tiger's arm.

Kagami still wants to lecture the blond. It was already the third quarter, and Kaijou is falling _way_ behind. With the scores at 57-50, he couldn't help but get angry. He was expecting his team to fall behind by a ten-point difference, and that his team will be the one trying their best to catch-up. Kise was thinking of something else in the middle of the game. _What the hell? Is this game really just a sideshow that this blond isn't even bothering on trying at all?_ Is what he thought. But he is _very _wrong.

"What the heck? It's already the third quarter? Shin-chan, your story took too much time!" Takao complains in the background. Veins pop-up on Midorima's face.

So yeah, Kise is chinaware phobic. The case is so rare that it doesn't even have a scientific name yet. Kuroko knows about his phobia, but right now, she doesn't have a clue about that the blond is actually going through it. Talk about wrong timing.

"Kise-kun, what's wrong?" Kuroko asks. She's concerned about the blond. Sure, she bullies him often to show how she cares, but that doesn't mean that's all she can do to show it.

"K-Kuroko-cch-cchi…" Kise mumbles in a manner which Kuroko has only seen once, and this being second.

That's when Kuroko deemed Kise's situation to be grim. _Can it be? _She thought. She looked around the stadium, searching for something—and possibly, someone she knows.

"Shin-chan, why are you hiding in the shadows? And more importantly, why are you dragging me to hide with you?" The two Shutoku High students ducked and lowered their heads, hiding themselves from Kuroko's sight. No, it was actually just Midorima, but he dragged down Takao on the ground, too. Fortunately for Midorima, Kuroko didn't see them.

"Shut up, nanodayo." He whispered almost desperately. "We can't be seen."

Meanwhile, Kise's eyes still looked lifeless, looking at Kuroko. "Kise-kun, please tell us what's wrong. We'll help you."

"K-Kurokocchi… Ch-chinawares…" The blond mumbles, audible enough for everyone on the court to hear. "I-I saw chinawares!" The last one was completely audible, to everyone paying attention, that is.

There was complete silence.

"PFFFT—FUWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!" Someone from the audience snorted loudly. Turns out it was Takao. Midorima rolled his eyes again.

Little by little, Kagami, Kasamatsu, Hyuuga, Izuki, Riko, Mitobe, Koganei, Moriyama, Hayakawa, Kobori, and Coach Takeuchi—along with the other Kaijou basketball club members and game officials, started to laugh hysterically.

Kise's eyes widened. He expected this to happen, but somehow he also expected his teammates to be angry. But things turning out like this don't make him feel any better at all. He turns to Kuroko, who is his only hope at the moment. But to the blond's dismay, she was stifling a laugh. This triggers Kise's eyes to run a waterfall, and an arm trying to reach out to her, as if to say, _'you too, Kurokocchi?'_

"I can't believe this!" Kagami says, wiping tears from his eyes out of too much hysterics. "There's no single chinaware can be seen in this stadium—PFFFFFT—BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"W-well…" Kise hesitates.

"Wait, what's it with you and chinawares?" Kasamatsu, Hyuuga, Moriyama and Izuki asked in unison, trying too hard to suppress a laugh.

"…"

"Please don't make this too hard for Kise-kun. He's chinaware phobic." Kuroko explains, regaining her serious expression.

"WHAT?" Everyone asked in unison, including Takao. Midorima rolled his eyes again, didn't he tell the raven-haired idiot about it already?

"Allow me to explain it for him." Kuroko said with her stoic face. "It was Adolf Hitler's fault."

"…"

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"Really?" Riko asks, breaking the silence.

"Yes." Kuroko answers.

"I did Nazi that coming." Izuki interjects one of his ever present puns.

"…"

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There was a moment of silence for those who didn't find it funny. However, Takao laughed in the background, not because he found the joke funny, but because how humiliating Izuki is right at that moment of silence. A mean guy, really.

"I understand how you feel now." Izuki pats Kise's back, face gloomy. The blond grew hopeful and had stars in his eyes.

"Enough of this." Kaijou's fat coach Takeuchi demanded. "Explain everything now, Kise. I want all the details!"

The blond hesitated at first, but he knew had to say it now. "W-well… where should I start…" Kise asks himself rhetorically. "It's true that it involves Adolf Hitler… in a way."

"Go on." The fat coach says.

"I believe that Adolf Hitler is just a figure, maybe even just a metaphor." Kuroko adds. Most from Kaijou's members shrieked; looks like not everyone's used to her weak presence yet.

"Th-that's right." Kise affirms. "It was when we were in Middle school…" _Right after they announced Kurokocchi's a girl and I announced in the whole school that I'm not gay._ He thought, sighing. "I started to hang around Kurokocchi more often than before during a certain time. One day, I started receiving... ch-chinawares from a person under an alias of A.H.; I knew this because a note was always with it."

"A.H. stands for Adolf Hitler, huh?" Hyuuga asks rhetorically. "But what's with that pairing?" He now asks a real question, referring to how unrelated Adolf Hitler is to chinawares.

"They're completely unrelated, yes, but it wasn't the about the codename and the chinaware. It was the message that was written in the note that came with it." Kuroko explains.

Kise nodded. "You see, one day, I was about to go home, and I normally go to the locker room before leaving, and..." He hesitated for a bit. "There was a chinaware inside my locker, with a note sticked to it."

"What did it say?" Everyone asked.

"The note read, _'She doesn't love you'._"

"HUH?" Everyone asked in unison.

"I shrugged it off at first, of course. But the next day, it appeared again in my locker... This time, it said, _'She hates you.'_ It got worse everyday, appearing everywhere. It was even on my bed when I woke up one day—it even said, _'She wants you to die'_. I started to fear chinawares then, because it kept on reminding me that this girl will never like me."

Everyone sweatdropped.

_So this guy's serious about Kuroko/-chan/-san?_ The whole Seirin members thought. Kaijou on the other hand, had no idea who the girl Kise liked is.

Kagami didn't know what to feel. Kise being serious about Kuroko? What the fuck is that about? _Kuroko probably has no idea it's her anyway._ He thought, looking at the said girl.

* * *

The much-awaited practice match between Kaijou and Seirin got cancelled. Coach Riko was the most disappointed—she was the one who worked hard to earn a practice with the strong team of Kaijou after all. Everyone felt pooped after hearing Kise's story, it's enough reason to cancel a practice match, right?

_"Let's cancel the practice match for now. I don't want to win like this, especially after hearing about Kise's dilemma!" Kagami exclaims._

_Before Riko can even complain, everybody started agreeing one-by-one. _

_"Yeah, we have a too large advantage if Kise Ryouta's not playing; it won't be a match at all." Hyuuga adds._

_"So it's settled, then. Just remember that we have to resolve this match in the Inter-High. We'll expect to meet you there!" Kasamatsu declares, pointing out the 7-point advantage Seirin had before they cancelled the match._

_"Of course." Hyuuga affirms._

_And Seirin started walking on their way out of Kaijou. _

"I feel so weirdly pooped." Izuki says, and everyone seems to agree. They didn't even finish the match and they're all so exhausted. They're all blaming Kise's story.

Loud footsteps from behind them can be heard. All of them looked back, and it turns out it was Kise. "Kurokocchi! Everyone!" He calls out.

"Everyone… I'm sorry about what happened." Kise apologizes to the whole Seirin team. Meanwhile, there were two Shutoku High students spying their conversation.

"It's not your fault, Kise-kun. Whoever brought the chinawares is at fault here." She says.

Eyeglasses cracked.

Kise smiles inwardly. _Ha! Hear that Midorimacchi?_ _And_ _Akashicchi? _He thought. But instead, he says, "No, it's my fault." Well, it was partly his fault. If only he wasn't an idiot, Midorima wouldn't have become angry, he wouldn't have felt the greenhead's killing intent, he wouldn't have looked at his direction, Akashi wouldn't have called and mentioned the chinawares and he wouldn't have seen the chinawares sitting beside the greenhead.

He leans closer to Kuroko and whispers to her ear. "I almost revealed your secret to Kasamatsu-senpai."

Somehow, Kuroko got the picture of what happened after that. "I see. But, Kise-kun, there's no problem with Kasamatsu-senpai knowing." She says.

"Eh?" The blond looked dumbfounded. _I went through all that for nothing!?_ He pulled his hair out mentally.

"It's alright for him to know, you trust him, right?" She pats his head and gives him a small smile.

The blond blushed. _I guess this makes me happy_. He thought. "R-right!"

The Seirin boys are all jealous of Kise Ryouta. _I want to be patted by Kuroko-chan/san, too! _They all thought.

"Ugh, boys these days." Riko facepalmed.

_So I went through all that for nothing? _Midorima has the exact same thought Kise had earlier. He looks beside him and sees Takao stifling a laugh. "What's with you, nanodayo?"

"Shin-chan, that's the phantom sixth man of Teiko, right?" Takao asks.

"Yes. She is." Midorima felt his glasses break for the second time. He accidentally revealed something to Takao.

"I knew it!" Takao says, chuckling. "So you like her, right? I'll play cupid for you!"

"Shut up, nanodayo. I don't like her."

"Hoo~ Shin-chan is in denial~"

"Shut up!"

"Yieeee~ Shin-chan is in-love~"

"Stop it, Takao! I'll be killed if _someone _hears you!"

"_That_ someone?"

"Yes!"

"Oh. Okay."

* * *

Kise went looking for Midorima after that. It didn't take a minute for him to spot the greenhead clutching a toy frog near Kaijou's locker rooms.

Before Kise could even call the guy out, the greenhead spoke. "Oha-asa predicted that Geminis will have terrible luck today."

"Midorimacchi." Kise greets the greenhead with caution. "I see you dumped the... chinawares." He says, looking carefully at the greenhead, making sure the chinawares are really gone.

"Kise, it's been a while. " Midorima greets back. "I did, it was a pain to bring around."

The blond sighs. "You and Akashicchi really get along well, huh?"

"I was ordered to watch and bring it with me, that is all."

Kise raised an eyebrow at the greenhead. "Then why were you furious at me earlier?"

It was Midorima's turn to raise an eyebrow at the blond. "Simply because you almost put Kuroko into trouble."

"So you _do _care about her..." Kise says.

The greenhead was silent for a few seconds, but then replied to the blond. "We might not have gotten along very well back then, but she's still a comrade."

Kise scrutinized Midorima's expression. "If you say so."

"By the way, Kise, if you're thinking of getting another match with Seirin, you better give up." Midorima states.

"I think I know where this is going." Kise sighs again.

"They'll face us first, and we will certainly not lose."

Kise remained silent. And so did Midorima. It was silent for a while, until a raven-haired came shouting profanities.

"FUCK THIS SHITTY REAR CAR!" Takao, who actually has a potty mouth, shouted while 'driving' the rear car. He stops in front of the two Miracles. He breathed heavily before turning to Midorima then Kise with a grumpy face.

"You two better be done talking as soon as possible; I'm not used to seeing ripe and unripe mangoes having conversations!" Takao throws at the two.

Kise sweat-dropped. Midorima's veins popped-up his face.

* * *

_"Akashi, it wasn't a problem for Kuroko after all." _Midorima says to the redhead via phone.

"I see."

_"Sounds like you know already."_

"I do."

_"...so what was the point of all this?"_

"I wanted to confirm something."

_"And you confirmed it?"_

"Of course."

_"Can I at least know what it was about?"_

"Sure. I confirmed that as of today, I have Kise and _you_ as my rival."

Akashi can feel Midorima gulping on the other line.

"I was kidding Shintarou."

Oh, he's in denial, too, alright.

* * *

**A/N: Yo, minna-san! Sorry for the late update! T^T I was VERY VERY BUSY, you see. But here you go, a somewhat funny chapter! Hahaha. Adolf Hitler who might you actually be? XD**

**And guys, I'm also very sorry since for now, I won't be able to reply to your reviews. I just squeezed updating KTB in my sched, to be honest. I'm so sorry guys.**

**But I'd still like to hear from you! Your reviews are the ones that keep pushing me into doing the best I can. Thank you for F&amp;F-ing, and I'll always be grateful to all of you people's support. **

**See you again in the next update! (^o^)/**


	9. 7: This Day is an Outrageous One

**Warnings: **Profanities. Some OOCs. Some random cracks lying somewhere in this chapter. You have been warned!

* * *

**Chapter 7**

* * *

_If this was just any other day, Seirin members would just go home immediately at 3:00 in the afternoon after a delayed match, especially if the whole day is dedicated for it. Too bad, today, they can't go home having growling stomachs. But fate, however, was picking on these poor kids; they didn't have enough moolah to spend on food._

_The money they have left is around 600 yen. Enough to feed small portions to the senpais. Should they abandon the first-years? Tell them to go home without them? Even for coach Riko, that's just too underhanded. She still has some humanity left, after all._

_Suddenly—as if a shining ray of hope have passed by her—the coach's eyes glimmered with hope. She called the boys whose backs are slumped and gloomy than usual._

_"FREE STEAK, ANYONE?" She asks, after seeing a truck with a free steak challenge written on it._

_But before that, there was the Blue Elite Kaijou basketball club members who are all talking about the team that's desperate to eat to something..._

* * *

"That was a waste. I wanted to find out how the game turns out in the end." Kobori, changing into his regular school uniform, says, regretful of the cancelled game with Seirin.

"Me too." Kasamatsu agrees with Kobori. "I didn't expect Seirin to actually be a team with great potential. That Kagami Taiga broke one of our hoops, and the second years seem to be quite good, too." He says, looking like he's all guarded up.

"Don't (forget) the invisible (one), Kasamatsu-san, he's (definitely) threatening, (too)!" Hayakawa Mitsuhiro, who seems to have speech problems, says to the Kaijou captain.

Kise is listening to them more intently, especially after hearing his upperclassman Hayakawa mention Kuroko. People remembering her doesn't always happen, after all, so his interest rouse. He doesn't say a word, though, because right now, he still feels ashamed of his chinaware phobia. To him, he was a complete nuisance during the game earlier.

"Oh, yeah. That number eleven, wasn't he called Kuroko?" Moriyama asks. "He's good. Well, it's not surprising since he's Kise's teammate in Teiko. Right, blondie?" The ladies' man senpai asks his blond kouhai.

"O-of course! Hehehe..." Kise says, caught off-guard by Moriyama suddenly acknowledging his presence. What, is he trying to be like Kuroko-sama, or something?

"We'll definitely think of a counter for him." Kasamatsu says, looking cautious. "Oh, and their coach's commanding, too, despite being still in high school. And the fact that she's a girl makes her really respectable."

"Speaking of girl, number eleven kinda looks like one, if you look at him carefully." Kobori adds. Kise grew apprehensive for a moment.

"Looks doesn't matter, as long you're good." Kasamatsu says simply. "All teams aim for the top, and going to the top means you have to have great players. And Seirin did a great job finding one—no, two."

"Well, yeah. But teamwork still matters, even for a team that's full great players, without teamwork, the team won't go as strong in the long run." Moriyama says something really great for the first time ever. _Like, ever. _The whole team thinks, so too.

"I (think) Seirin has (that), too! Which (makes) them a (threat)!" Hayakawa adds, even though no one understood him.

"Well, as long as you win everything's fine." Kobori says. "But yeah, I think Seirin's quite good, if that's what Hayakawa meant."

Kise's ears was still ringing with Moriyama's words of wisdom earlier. Somehow, it reminded him of his last weeks in Teiko. How they all scrapped the teamwork, but still won every games with a huge point difference—perhaps even greater than before—but look at all of them now: they're like complete strangers. Even talking to Midorima seemed like he was talking only to someone he used to know. He also felt that Kuroko was wary of him when he came to see her back in Seirin High.

"SHIT!" Kise exclaims after remembering that he has something to ask Kuroko about, astonishing the whole Kaijou team in the locker room.

Kasamatsu, who's also done changing, scolds the disaster of a blond. "What the hell is problem, Kise!?"

"I…" The blond mumbles.

The whole team, still on the process of changing their clothes, focused at him intently.

"I…" He mumbles again, this time, a little louder.

The whole team is still focused at him.

"I… I… What was my problem again?" The blond said, massaging his temples, acting as if he's trying to remember something.

The whole team face palmed. Kasamatsu's fist was about to land on the blond, but then the guy suddenly raised a hand to stop his captain.

"Sorry, everyone. I meant that I forgot to ask Kurokocchi something." Kise explains, apologetic.

Kasamatsu finally lays his about-to-attack-fist low. And then suddenly, he shouts, "THEN GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE! SEIRIN WILL BE BY THE TRAIN IN A FEW MOMENTS, IDIOT!"

Kise's sweat dropped. _Should I tell senpai the truth or not? _He thought, considering what Kuroko has said to him before she left earlier. If he doesn't tell him now, there'd be a lot of consequences. For one thing, he doesn't really like the idea of keeping secrets from people he's close to. Secondly, he's bad at keeping secrets. Kuroko probably knew that, which is why she told him not to worry. After a few moments, Kise has decided to tell his captain about Kuroko's situation.

"Kasamatsu-senpai, can you go with me, to find Seirin?" The blond asks.

"HAH? NO WA—" Kasamatsu didn't get to finish his sentence, for Kise has pulled him out of the locker room in a speed of light. The rest of the team sweatdropped, but shrugged it off. They were all on their way home, too, anyway.

"Kasamatsu, senpai." The blond starts, walking slowly. "Can you accompany me, please?" He finishes with a question.

Usually, Kasamatsu just declines the blond's requests, especially when he wears that poor, pleading expression on his face, but right now, however, the blond looks determined. Looks like he'll try to consider Kise's request. "Fine, we're already walking on our way there, aren't we? I don't have much of a choice, then."

"Thanks, senpai." The blond thanks his captain.

"Don't mention it."

The two Kaijou players kept on walking swiftly, but not brisk walking, though. They walked on a speed that still made them look cool. Yep, the way they look kinda matters.

Kise started thinking about how he'll start explaining, or how he'll bring the topic of Kuroko's situation into their conversation. He didn't want to break it to his captain so suddenly that said guy would think he's just joking around and end up getting hit for 'telling him a blatant lie'.

"So what are you going to talk about with me?" Kasamatsu asks, curious about the blond's sudden seriousness.

"Senpai, what do you think of Kurokocchi?" Kise begins, trying to ask about Kuroko a liitle bit.

_Is that what he's going to talk about?_ Kasamatsu thought, his curiosity rising. He might as well try to go along with what Kise's trying to do. "I think he's a menace to everyone trying to reach the top."

"I see, I see! Well, I think so, too." Kise says happily, it's good to hear that people see Kuroko as a good player. "What else, senpai?"

"Uh, well you seem kinda close to each other…" Kasamatsu hesitates. _In an awkward way—more like, bromance-y way. _He thought.

"Right, right!" The blond is happy, but kind of gets that his captain's getting the wrong idea. No, he's getting the right idea in the wrong way. Does that even make sense? "Uhm, how about Kurokocchi's looks? You know, is there something off about _her_?" This time, he referred to Kuroko in 'her' intentionally.

Too bad, the Kaijou captain didn't seem to bother with the blond's wrong use of pronoun. "Now that you mention it, he's too small for a basketball player, but he does quite well, surprisingly. And yeah, he looks like a girl…" _…yeah, a girl. Is Kise mistaking Kuroko Tetsuya for a girl, thus, referring him as 'she'?_ He thought. _Or maybe…_

"Kasamatsu-senpai, you see, Kurokocchi's in a special situation, and a very odd one, at that." Kise looks more serious now. "You probably won't believe me at first, because like what I said, she's in an odd situation, right now. But senpai, please hear me out."

Kasamatsu just nodded. His curiosity is at its peak.

"You see, senpai, Kurokocchi's…" The blond hesitates.

Kasamatsu anticipated the blond's next words.

"…you see, Kurokocchi's… uhm…"

"WHAT IS IT DAMN IT!"

"Kurokocchi's a girl!"

"I knew it—" The Kaijou captain says in an annoyed way. But then her realized what the blond said to him. "Wait, what?"

"Senpai, Kurokocchi's girl."

It was the second time, but Kasamatsu still couldn't believe his ears. "...come again?"

"I said, Kurokocchi's a girl. A GIRL. G-I-R-L. GIRL."

The Kaijou captain's eyes widened comically. Somehow, everything started to make sense. _The rumor about the phantom player of Teiko being a girl, Kuroko Tetsuya's petite build, Kise being overly affectionate about the said person, and the moment when the blond idiot said "she" earlier._ It all clicked.

"I- I see." He just says, still in a daze. He has many questions to ask like, why, when, where, how, and things like that, but he knew that Kise is in a hurry.

"Please keep this a secret from everyone!" The blond begs, his hands secured together in a pleading gesture. A few seconds later, he returned to his serious attitude.

"Y-yeah. Why did you tell me about this?" The Kaijou captain asks the blond.

"It's better to have someone share a secret. Thanks for hearing me out and believing in me, senpai." Kise smiles, happy that it didn't take too long to convince his captain.

"Don't mention it."

"Thank you so much, senp—"

Kasamatsu raises a hand to stop the guy. "You better get going now, or Seirin will be gone already!"

"Right. Thanks, senpai."

"Just go, idiot."

"Yeah. Thanks again, sen—"

Annoyed as hell, the Kaijou captain kicked the blond so hard it made him fly. He lands a few meters ahead of Kasamatsu on his butt.

The blond cranes his head to look at his captain and yell at him. "Senpai, that hurt!" But then he sees his captain pointing at something and he follows the direction. He was pointing at someone. A little bit near them. And he sees Midorima and his friend Takao.

"I saw him earlier as a spectator." His captain refers to the greenhead.

"Oh, yeah. That's... a former teammate in Teiko, you see." Kise explained, getting up.

"Go on, then. He might know where to find Seirin."

"He _does_ know." Kise started to run to Midorima, but realized that his captain wasn't following him. He stops for a while.

Kasamatsu just looked at him solemnly. "You go on ahead. I'll be heading back home, now."

"E-eh? If you say so, senpai."

"Just go, okay?" Kasamatsu turns his back and started walking. "See you at practice! Don't be late."

"Yes, senpai!" Kise waved to his captain, and continued to running to a certain greenhead.

* * *

_/Approximately ten minutes ago/_

Standing in front of a saloon-like steak house which offers a special and at the same time ridiculous challenge was Seirin, a team desperate to fill their stomachs.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Kuroko says with an unusual frown, after sneezing suddenly. In her front was a poster which read: '_Super Volume 4kg Steak; Eat it in 30 minutes or less and it's free! Those who fail must pay 10,000 yen!'_

"Did you catch a cold, Kuroko?" Kagami asks her, concerned.

"Not really, thanks for your concern, Kagami-kun" She thanks him.

"Oh come on, Kuroko-chan! What's wrong with free steak?" The coach cheers.

"…"

"There's actually nothing wrong, but one person finishing a four kilo steak seems impossible to me." Koganei says, skeptic.

"Then, do you have a better idea, Koganei-kun!?" The coach snarls at the cat-like guy. "We have almost no money, and I can hear all of your stomachs complaining, you know!?"

"Well, I was just saying that four kilo's too much, you know." Koganei sighs.

"Should we go someplace where they give away free cheeseburgers instead?" Kagami suggests, looking grumpy.

"Oh yeah, sure!" Riko says cheerfully. In a split second she released a deadly aura. "IF SOMEONE HERE WITH US CAN EAT _JUST_ _ONE_ SERVING, THAT IS."

"You're talking about me, aren't you? …Ma'am?" Kagami asks, a bit scared. "W-well, I was just kidding…"

The coach turns back to her fake cheerful self. "Good."

"Steak, burger, whatever. As long as everyone gets to eat, I have no complaints." Hyuuga the captain says. The first year trio can't help but admire him for what he said.

"I thought Hyuuga is a selfish guy, but look at him!" Izuki exclaims. Koganei, Tsuchida and Mitobe all nodded, agreeing to what Izuki had said.

A huge vein popped out of Hyuuga's face. "LET'S JUST GO IN NOW, SHALL WE?"

"THAT'S RIGHT DIMWITS. GET INSIDE NOW!" The coach grimaces.

"Yes ma'am!" The whole team said in unison, including Kuroko. No one dares to try Riko. No one.

"Hah. I'm such a boss, aren't I?" Riko asks proudly, raising her to hands palms facing up, as if to say _"no one can beat my authority"_. Pfffffft.

Kuroko can't blame her—she still hasn't met a certain _someone, _anyway. Someone who had twisted her opinion about authority; someone who does the sickest, most perverse methods ever known by humankind to make them succumb to him and his plans—well, that was a bit exaggerated. Anyway, Kuroko wants to hate that person, which is why she's trying to look and focus at all of his bad sides… But for some reasons, she just can't hate that person. She doesn't want to admit it, but… _I am used to that person's schemes, and therefore, I can say that I accept his dark side_. She thought.

"—ko-chan!" Kuroko then snaps out of her trance, she realizes that the coach has been calling her name for quite some time now. "Kuroko-chan! You're not even listening to me, are you?" She sounded more concerned than scolding, actually. Thank Kami-sama.

"Ah. I'm sorry, coach. I was just spacing out." She says bluntly. _The hell was I thinking about again? _Our heroine thought, trying to fool herself.

"For the umpteenth time, let's go inside!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

And so, Seirin went—oblivious that two Shutoku players were watching them walk inside the steak house.

"Shin-chan. I know you're in love the phantom sixth man, but come on! This is too much! STALKING IS TOO MUCH! Let's go home already!" The raven-haired Shutoku student complained.

"Let me clear things out, Takao." Midorima clears his throat. "First, I'm not in-love with Kuroko." He pauses for a second. "S-second, we're not stalking, we're spying. Third, I was ordered to do this. If I weren't, then I wouldn't bother doing something outrageous as this. That is all." He elaborates. And then suddenly, as if lightning struck him, he remembered his phone conversation with Akashi earlier.

_"I confirmed that as of today, I have Kise and _you_ as my rival."_

The greenhead's face becomes gloomy and he mentally chokes upon remembering what the redhead had said to him. _Could he have been talking about K-Kuroko? _He wonders. Despite his looks, Midorima can be dense—no, more like, an airhead—sometimes. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is an understatement. Somebody teach him a lesson!

_"I was kidding Shintarou."_

Midorima's face grew even gloomier. _He even tried to deny it! _He thought. If he were to try being out of character, he would have thought _'What the actual fuck' _right now. But he couldn't. He's too damned reserved on keeping his cool side intact. What the actual fuck, Midorima.

"As expected of Tsunderima!" Takao snickers. "Jeez, you think I wouldn't notice that sudden pause after saying the phantom's name?"

Midorima was brought out of his stupor. "…"

"Don't worry, man. I believe in what you said after that. I don't want to be called a stalker, either, so I agree. The next one after that, hmm… I do believe it a little, uh, let's say, about twenty-percent?"

"…"

"Well, whatever. Just be more honest with your feelings, Shin-chan! It's not that hard, is it?"

Irritated, Midorima grunted. "Shut up, nanodayo."

"Okay, okay. I'll shut up for now." Takao backs down for now, a teasing smile still on his face.

And then all of a sudden, the two can hear someone calling out to them, or screaming to them. To Midorima, specifically.

"MIDORIMACCHIIIII!" Kise screamed on the top of his lungs.

"Kise, don't scream my name in front of many people, nanodayo. Also, you're going to cause a disturbance." Midorima reprimands the blond calmly.

"Pfft. You're just worried that the phantom sixth man will learn that you're here!" Takao LOL-s again.

"Shut up, Takao." Midorima grunts.

"So, Kurokocchi's really here. Great!" Kise says in between his heavy breathing. "Midorimacchi, what are you up to now? Don't tell me you're ordered to do this, again?" He asks, suspicious.

Midorima sighs. "I won't lie; earlier, I did what I did because I was ordered to. This time, however, I am deliberately doing this for my own reason."

Kise has finally controlled his breathing again. "And what is your reason?"

"Before I tell you…" Midorima then turns to Takao, raising an arm with his hands in a chopping form, while the other hand was adjusting his glasses. And Takao knew what it meant. "I have to put this guy to sleep, first."

_Uh-oh. _Takao thought. But it was too late run. Midorima was unexpectedly fast—he landed a powerful strike at the raven-haired jokester's head that immediately put him in a slumber

Kise sweatdropped, but he helped the greenhead carry the jokester to the rear car's "interior".

"About my reason," Midorima begins. "I wanted to ask Kuroko something."

Kise gulped, not because he was scared, but because he and Midorima actually had the same intention. "What did you want to ask her?"

Could it be that they also have the same thing they're gonna ask her?

Midorima stays silent for a second. "Kise, did you come here with the same intention as mine?"

"Yes."

"Then, it won't be unforeseen that we may have the same question to ask Kuroko."

* * *

Kuroko steps out of the silly scene that was happening inside the steak house. The moment she sat beside her coach and saw he smiling like a maiden in-love she already felt that things are going to get ugly.

And she was right. The four kilogram steak was bigger and heavier than she had imagined. She saw her teammates endure every last bit of bite they had to swallow. It was just too much. Her senpais looked like they were poisoned; the first-year trio almost looked like they were dying.

_"Why do have to go through this?" Koganei asked, about to say his last words._

_"Because you love basketball? And that you were all hungry earlier and we didn't have enough money?" Her sinister-slash-kinda-stupid coach replied, uncaring._

_"WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?" All of the boys let out a screech._

_"Wait, Kagami's a glutton, right!?" Izuki asked._

_"Right, right! KAGAMI, HELP US OUT!" Hyuuga says in panic._

_"WAIT! I can't eat everything! Sure, I can eat about 20 kilos, but all of our steaks combined will be more tha_—_" And they all pushed the steak into his mouth, one-by-one. _

_"If you don't eat this all, I'll make your high school life a living hell." Hyuuga threatened Kagami._

_Kagami turned pale. Did he die? No. But he's sure to suffer from either constipation or diarrhea sooner or later._

Well, it's all in the past, and what matters is now. In fact, right now, she's looking at two people who definitely matter. She's even more surprised seeing one of them; it was unusual and out of character of the person to be here.

Can this day become any crazier? Kuroko hopes, that this, is the craziest day ever, and that it won't have a crazier follow-up.

"Kise-kun." Kuroko greets at the blond. She then turns to the greenhead, whom she hasn't seen in months. "Midorima-kun, it's a surprise to see you here."

"Kuroko, it's been a while." Midorima greets back.

"Kurokocchi, can we talk for a little bit?"

* * *

The three went to a nearby street basketball court.

As they all continued to walk in silence, Kise decided to break the ice. "It's been a while since we have been together like this."

"Right." Kuroko replies.

Midorima remained silent.

When the three reached the bench near the screen partition, the blond was the only one who actually sat down. He thought that this is the best chance to carry out his revenge. "You see, Kurokocchi, Midorima watched our cancelled-practice-match, and he brought chinawares."

The greenhead's eyeglasses cracked for the second time. Good thing he brought more than one for replacement. Kuroko and Kise were astonished. But Kise was far more astonished. His mouth was wide open.

"So it's Midorima-kun and his lucky item's fault?" Kuroko asked bluntly.

"No. My lucky item for the day is a toy frog. I unconsciously left it at Tak—my friend's rear car." Midorima explains calmly. "And like what I have said for so many times now, I was ordered to watch the match and bring chinawares."

"Yeah. And guess what Kurokocchi! It was Akashicchi who asked him to! He's mean, really." Kise chuckled.

"Oh." Kuroko says.

"Kuroko." Midorima calls her out. "We didn't get along very much, but please answer my question."

"What is it, Midorima-kun?"

The wind's strength suddenly grew abruptly. "Why did you disappear after the championship?" The greenhead asks the million-dollar question, followed by, "And why, of all schools, did you choose Seirin?"

Kuroko didn't expect to get asked a question like this so soon. She thought that perhaps she should answer, for everything to be clear for them, but she doesn't really want to tell them.

"You really want to know, Shintarou?"

No, it wasn't Kuroko. It wasn't Kise, either. That referring by first-name, and that voice, is very, very familiar. But it can't be. In their memories, however, the person who owned that voice was capable of doing almost anything.

All three of them were frozen. It was Akashi Seijuro. _Wait, wasn't he in Kyoto?_ They all thought. But alas, they turned their heads to their left and it was really him—wearing a suit, too.

"AKASHICCHI/AKASHI/AKASHI-KUN!?" The trio went rampant on their reactions.

"My, my, you three sure look thrilled seeing me." The emperor-like redhead said, smiling at the three.

Kuroko can't believe her eyes. It was really Akashi, with his commanding presence and his refined looks. This is indeed a crazy day. She never even thought of seeing him anytime soon. But, right now, however, he's actually here. _Is it a hologram?_ She was too curious and too determined to confirm if it was him. She unconsciously reached for his face and... pinched his cheeks. Vigorously.

Kise and Midorima sweatdropped. _KUROKOCCHI/KUROKO!_ _We'll be the ones facing his wrath, you know!_ Both of them thought.

Akashi was taken aback. That hurt, indeed. But he was happy that Kuroko Tetsuna actually tried to lay a hand on him. "Missed me, Tetsuna?" He smiled a commercial-worthy smile to her.

Kuroko felt her heart race, but our heroine answered, "Not really."

Akashi just smiled at her and patted her in the head. "You can deny it, but you can't hide it."

"..."

"Oi, Akashi! W-why are you here?" Midorima asks, baffled at Akashi's actions.

Akashi smiled, but not as flashy as before. "I came here in Tokyo this afternoon. My father had a business meeting with a company here, and to my dismay, I was forced to attend." And he was telling the truth. "I called _you_ earlier as indication." He says to Midorima.

Kise's jaws dropped. "A-Akashicchi! Because of you our practice match got cancelled!"

The redhead's pair of red and golden eyes looked the blond's pure gold ones. "I thought it was a good timing, though, Ryouta. This could've saved your pride."

"Are you saying that, I could've lost?" Kise asked, perplexed.

"No. I was saying that anyone could have won, and that you should thank me that the game was stopped before you could even find out the result." Akashi says simply.

"But that's the same thing!" Kise retorts.

"It's not. I am absolute, Ryouta, don't question me." Akashi's eyes looked dangerous.

"HIEEEE! Alright, alright!" Kise gives up, exasperated.

The redhead turns to Kuroko again. "Tetsuna, you don't have to answer Shintarou's question right away." He then turns away. Pictures of what happened back then flashes in his mind. "Even though I'm curious myself." He says in a calm expression.

"That's right, Kuroko. You don't have to force yourself." Midorima adds.

"Whoa. I didn't expect Midorimacchi to back out, though!" Kise comments, chuckling.

"..."

Kuroko smiles a little. "I guess I'm not yet ready to asnwer that question, after all. I'm sorry, Midorima-kun."

Midorima blushed slightly. Tsunderimaaaaa. "L-like I said, it's fine. Don't force yourself."

In the redhead and the blond's eyes, Midorima looked like he was flirting. Kise pouts at this. Akashi smiled dangerously.

* * *

The rest of the Seirin members arrived at an outrageous scene. Apparently, they were looking for Kuroko, and here they found out that she's actually with Kise (again)... uh, Teiko's former shooting guard... Midorima Shintarou... and... and... said school's former captain and pointguard... Akashi Seijuro.

"Your brother is going to be destroyed." The redhead with heterochromatic eyes threatens.

"I don't have a brother." Midorima shrugs.

Suddenly, a huge, high-end, jet printer went flying in the background.

Izuki cried tears of joy. Never in his life has he ever witnessed a punny scene before his eyes. "This… is just… just gold…" Aaaaand the printer crashed to the ground like a meteor—its parts and pieces been broken down into tiny bits.

"Wh-who tossed my tomorrow's l-lucky item!?" Midorima stuttered, baffled at what his lucky printer for tomorrow has come to.

The absolute redhead chuckles. "_Who_ _else_ did, Midorima?" Implying that it was _him _who threw the mega-heavy printer, and then he smirks.

Everyone in the scene (except Kuroko-sama) had their jaws dropped to the ground. _So he actually meant the brand 'Brother'!? _They all thought.

"I salute you, former captain and point guard of Teiko!" Izuki lowered his head in front of Akashi Seijuro.

Hyuuga wanted to punch the pun master, good thing Mitobe and Koganei were able to restrain him

While everyone came to believe Akashi's deception, Kuroko didn't fail to notice the huge, dark-skinned, brawny guy that came and went like a lightning.

_Akashi-kun hired a hitman? He did a great job, indeed. _She thought, smiling.

* * *

**OMAKE**

On their way home, Kagami and Kuroko walked before talking.

"Why were they so harsh on me?" Kagami asked Kuroko, suffering from stomach ache from the steak he had earlier. But good thing he can still manage it.

Kuroko looks at the tiger-like guy. "You mean the senpais?" She receives a nod. "From what I have observed, I think that it's because you're not a girl, Kagami-kun. It's called unfair treatment, or simply injustice."

"What?"

"I've already compared their treatment from back when I was disguised as a boy and when I revealed that I'm a girl. The difference is remarkably high."

"Oh. Is that so?" Kagami looked up the sky, thinking about the previous happenings.

"Yes. You didn't notice?"

"…"

"You should know better than me, Kagami-kun, you're a guy."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"…"

"Oi, I asked you something!"

"Well, I don't know either. I'm not a guy, after all." Kagami made a face at Kuroko's answer. "But Kagami-kun's different. You have treated me the same way you did from the very beginning."

"Of course, I have! I'm against unfair treatment, and I do believe in equality! Besides, just because you're not a real guy doesn't mean you're not the same manly Kuroko anymore." The tiger-like guy answers defensively.

She smiles a little. "You're right."

"Kuroko, that Akashi Seijuro... he's something else." Kagami says, skeptic.

"What do you mean?"

"Nevermind."

"He's somewhat twisted, yeah." Kuroko replies. _But, he can be nice sometimes, too..._ She thought.

"That's what I thought."

The two continues to walk for a while, until they reach the point where they have to split. They bid each goodbye.

_It's been a long, long day._ Kuroko thought. _I wish this won't happen again. _Our heroine tries to fool herself again.

* * *

**A/N: It's been a long day, indeed. One day, in three chapters, like seriously? XD Anyway guys, I'm truly sorry for having you wait for so long... It's been a month, yeah. I suffered from writer's block for quite some time, and yes, school work and stuff... I HOPE YOU FORGIVE ME. T^T**

**So, yeah. I guess I can only update twice next month. But don't worry, I'll update as fast like I did before when April comes! (^_^)/**

**Thank you guys for reviewing, F&amp;Fing and reading my fic~ :) See you again in the next chapter!**


	10. 8: Confusions

**Warnings: **Lots of profanities. Lots of sweat-dropping. Some OOCs. Cracks. You have been warned!

* * *

**Chapter 8**

* * *

_Sky blue eyes fluttered open. A whole bunch of nonsense had happened. Surprisingly, though, Kuroko found said nonsensical event funny and interesting, and it's a given that she rarely appreciates those kinds of things. Too bad, though, it all just happened in her dream._

_Well, not all of it, but the best parts of her memory of the other day weren't real—like, ehem, how the redhead demon king came over and made a huge fuss and such… It was, unfortunately, fabricated memories. Even her day-off felt like it just passed quickly, and it felt unreal. 'Was it really just a dream?' She thought, can't exactly tell what happened for real and what did not._

* * *

Kuroko went to school as usual, and classes, err, was boring as always. Kagami sits in front of her as usual, too. She noted that one fact, since today, she has a lot of questions to ask him—and then, she notices the tiger-like boy snoring a little. _He's asleep?_ She thought, wondering if the guy was actually excited for something again today, since he seems to lack sleep when exciting things are going to happen. And that's when she remembered the tiring events they went through the other day, if it were _all_ _real_, that is. _Ah, he's probably still tired._ She thought. Now, she's really pumped up to ask him about it.

A few moments later, her one-subject teacher began muttering something about world history—16th century, Onin war, Nobunaga Oda, Mitsuhide Akechi, and other events, and samurais related which she already knew about (she had read a lot of books about it before)—all the while walking his way to the sleeping Kagami. _Looks like he's gonna wake him up and punish him after that. _She thought, feeling a little bad for her teammate.

Suddenly, the tiger-like boy raised his right arm—still sleeping, yes—and grabbed the semi-bald head of their History teacher. Well, surprise, Mr. Baldy.

"H-huh?" The tiger-boy gains his awareness again, slowly opening his eyes. Kuroko blinks her eyes in surprise at what just happened.

"Don't fucking 'huh' me, you worthless bird shit." Kagami's eyes widened, now completely awake, after hearing Mr. Baldy utter profane words. No, the whole class, even. Kuroko blinks in surprise for the second time.

The half-bald teacher, realized what he just said, and simply added, "Oh well, surprise, motherfuckers," making some of the students laugh, widen their eyes, and formed beads of animated sweat which may or may not have dropped down their foreheads.

"Whoa~ Who knew Ol' Teach here was a pottymouth?" A random class clown asked rhetorically, making most of the class giggle. "Oh, and Teach, are you gonna call him to the faculty office?" The last question made Kagami grimace.

"Shut your trap, you son of a bitch," Baldy said, earning a loud laugh from the class again. "I've decided that calling him a _worthless bird shit_ was enough already, that's all. Get that, fucktard?" The class laughed harder, enjoying the sudden change of language use of their teacher.

And then the class went on with a few more lessons, stifled laughs, sarcastic comments, and profanities… Kuroko has to admit it herself, the class actually became less boring than usual. Kagami, however, wondered what the world has come to... _Nobody sees the wrong in using profanities anymore?_ _The hell?_ He thought.

The next thing Kuroko knew, the classes were over. Time flies so fast indeed. Now's her chance to ask Kagami about the happenings the other day.

Kagami stood up from his seat and started walking to the door. Kuroko followed suit, although the tiger boy didn't seem to notice her do so. She walks beside him.

_Where should I start? _The blunette thought, wondering if it's better to be direct or ask questions slowly. _Ah, I should start from the very beginning._ "Uh-huh." She nodded, determined, earning a surprised sudden head turn from the giant tiger.

"K-Kuroko!" Kagami half-shrieks, startled at the ghost girl's 'sudden' appearance. "Y-you…"

"Hello," She greets with a blank face, looking at him. "Kagami-kun, would you mind if I asked you questions?"

"Depends on what the questions are about." Kagami says simply. "Besides, that one should count."

"Eh?" Kuroko utters, tilting her head to the side a little, not understanding what her teammate said.

For a moment, Kagami thought that her head-tilt was kinda cute. 'Kinda cute' is an understatement, Kuroko-sama will always be the cutest. Anyways, he closed his eyes and sighed. _Kinda slow on the uptake. _He thought. "You know, you asked me if I mind being asked questions by you. Err, nevermind." He says, waving his left hand as if to tell her to not mind what he said.

But, now she understood what he meant. "Ah." She says, smacking her closed right hand down to the palm of her left hand. "No, Kagami-kun. That one doesn't count; I was merely trying to be polite." She's kinda slow, indeed.

_As if I didn't know that. _Kagami thought, sweatdropping. "I was kidding, okay?" He sighs again. "So what are you gonna ask me about?"

"It's about the day we went on a practice match against Kaijou." She started.

Kagami started to gain interest at what her questions are going to be about. "Yeah?"

"The match itself got cancelled, right?"

Kagami's eyes widened, looking at her as if she just lost her head. "Hah? Are you kidding? Of course it got cancelled! That _ikemen's _chinaware phobia went out of hand, remember?"

_Ah, so that was real. _Kuroko thought, looking up. "Then, did we eat at a steak salon after that?"

Kagami flinched at the thought of almost dying because of the steak. "U-uh, yeah, we did." Then he got rid of the thought, replacing it with another sorta disturbing one. "After that, you suddenly disappeared in thin air. We went looking for you for about an hour, you know."

"I see." _So that was real, too. _"What happened when you and the senpais found me?" She asks, hoping that the next event also happened for real.

Kagami looked at her as if she lost her head again. "Are you for real? I was the only one who found you."

That's when Kuroko thought that the happenings weren't real. "Is that so?" She felt somewhat disappointed. _So Akashi-kun didn't really come, after all. _She thought. She was about to ask him something again when suddenly, their first-year teammates, Furihata, Kawahara, and Fukuda called out to them.

"Oi, Kagami! Kuroko-san!" Furihata shouts, as if he was paging.

"Yo, what's up?" Kagami greets.

"The senpais are asking for us. We came to get the two of you." Fukuda explains, smiling.

"Really, what are they up to now? Knowing coach, there must be something fishy about this gathering thing…" Kawahara announces, kind of worried.

Kuroko however, is kind of disenchanted, but shrugs it off. _There'll be plenty of opportunities to ask him later._ She thought, nodding a little.

"Oi, Kuroko, you coming or what?" Kagami calls out.

"Sorry." She says, a little surprised that she actually was in deep thought. She then increased her pace swiftly to catch up to her teammates.

The five of them started heading to where the second-years are.

* * *

_Aida Riko had observed the members of the men's basketball club earlier, and yes—they were tired and sleepy as hell._ 'These idiots, really; we didn't even get to play Kaijou for four quarters.'_ She thought, releasing an exasperated sigh. _'Oh, and they had a day-off yesterday!'_ Now she was completely exasperated, she started thinking of various training that would help them increase each member's stamina._

_"Now that I think about it…" The coach pointed her pen on the side of her lips, looking up. "Today is the day." She then smiled. And that means she's scheming. Definitely scheming._

Now, Riko had successfully gathered the team, giving her plan quite the head start. She had considered earlier what she's going to add up to their training menu—how it wouldn't be too much for Kuroko, and at the same time, without it slowing down the others.

"So, what did you call us for?" Kagami asks the way he'd usually ask, and adding an, "Err, ma'am…" in the very last minute.

"Go buy some bread." Madame Riko orders the underclassmen, smiling innocently. It's really suspicious, if you ask them.

"Huh?" Kagami reacts, confused.

"Bread? For what, Coach?" Furihata asks.

"This exact same day every year, Seirin High's cafeteria sells a limited quantity of very extraordinary bread." Riko explains, holding up an index finger just to look clever.

"Oh." Someone _said. Oh,_ it was actually Kuroko, which surprised the second-years. Unfortunately, they're still not used to her lack of presence.

"Y-yes," Riko acknowledges her, somewhat awkwardly. She gains back her composure in Mach speed. "So, back to the topic. Supposedly, eating this fantastic bread will bring you success in love, clubs, and everything else." The coach further explains. Somehow, the second-years thought she was advertising it or something. "The triple delicacy Iberian pork cutlet sandwich with caviar, foie gras, and truffles! It's worth 2,800 yen!"

"Damn, it's so expensive." Kawahara comments.

"The content sounds scary, too." Furihata adds.

"We're asking you to buy this bread so we can succeed as a team." The coach adds.

"I didn't know she was superstitious." Izuki whispers to Hyuuga, jokingly.

"Well, we badly need it for the competition, so shut up." Hyuuga replies bluntly to the pun-master.

Izuki just sweat-dropped. _So you're superstitious, too._

"And that's all." The coach says. "But of course, we're not the only ones having our eyes on it, so you better hurry. It gets busier than usual sometimes." She seems to have completely convinced the first-years with her innocent smile, however, Hyuuga and Izuki flinched at her last line knowingly.

Somehow, Furihata can also feel something wrong; he flinched at the possibilities of what's gonna happen later.

"Well, that's easy as pie… ma'am." Kagami says with determination.

_Are you sure!? _Furihata thought

"Here," Hyuuga hands Kuroko a brown envelope which seems to be containing the money for buying the so-called special bread. "We're paying for this, so go buy yourselves a bread," He smiles, and then adds, "Also, buy us some lunch while you're at it."

"Roger, Captain." Kuroko says, saluting to Hyuuga with determination. An adorable action, yes, and it made the whole team smile.

"Hurry up, it sells really quickly." Izuki says.

"Izuki-senpai…" Furihata says, hesitant about what's waiting for them at the cafeteria.

"Don't worry, we managed to get some last year, so you can, too." Izuki tries to encourage his kouhai.

"We're going. See you later." The first-years said in unison, and started walking on their way to the cafeteria.

"Go-pher it, gophers!" Izuki exclaims at the first-years' backs.

_He's unbelievable. _The first-years thought in unison, sweat-dropping.

"No one can tell whether you're trying to cheer or insult them." Koganei says, doubting the raven-haired cutie.

Mitobe, on the other hand, holds out a hand as if trying to reach his kouhais.

"You always worry too much, Mitobe. What are you, their mother?" Koganei says, also doubting the silent boy.

"What did you mean, _'it gets a little busier'_?" Hyuuga finally gets to say it, with an incredulous expression on his face.

"Fufufufu~ I'm making this an annual event for first-years." The coach states a decree cheerfully.

"Seriously?"

* * *

"Seriously?" Is what Kagami can only say at the chaos happening right in front of him and his teammates. Apparently, the cafeteria isn't just getting busier than usual; in fact, it is the perfect example of a pandemonium or anarchy or tremendous uproar or whatever.

_"ONE IBERIAN PORK CUTLET PLEASE!"_

_"WHAT THE HELL!? I WAS HERE FIRST!"_

_"OUCH! THAT HURTS YOU BASTARD!"_

_"GIVE ME ONE IBERIAN, LADY!"_

_"HEY, DON'T PUSH ME!"_

Despite the chaos in front of these blockheads, they still had determination plastered all over their faces. Except Kuroko-sama, of course, she was still wearing a blank face as usual.

"W-we can't give up, we must try until the end! Who knows what the evil duo will do to us when we fail here." Kagami tries to encourage his teammates some more; his last line referring to their Coach and Captain.

"R-right." Fukuda seems more convinced, however, he can still feel the bad aura all the students in the line were giving off which made him flinch a little.

It seems that Kawahara is also convinced since he has started stretching all of a sudden. "Okay, I'll go first. I may not be as strong as Kagami, but I'm pretty confident in my strength!" And the boy started running for the crowd.

"Don't die!" Fukuda says in a worried tone.

Kawahara tried to dive in the sea of people. To Kuroko, Kagami, Furihata and Fukuda's surprise, he did not drown. Instead, he was forcefully pitched back to where he was standing earlier.

"K-Kawahara…" Fukuda mutters, shocked at what he had witnessed happening.

Furihata jumped next to the dead-looking body of his friend, worried. "Kawahara! Are you dead!?"

"That's pointless to ask, Furihata-kun. You won't get an answer if he did." Kuroko says nonchalantly.

_That's what you're concerned about!? _Kagami, Fukuda, and Furihata thought, giving her a disbelieving look.

"W-well, he was pretty useless…" Kagami says as obnoxiously as possible.

"That's mean, Kagami." Furihata adds, making a disappointed-yet-agreeing-a-little face.

"Now that I take a better look, we need a lot more than just strength." Fukuda speculates. "The Sumo club, Weightlifting club, the Rugby club's forwards, and the American Football club's linemen… just how are we supposed to get past these guys?"

Kagami can feel nothing but anticipation now, challenges like these has always had him thrilled ever since he was born. And then he remembered, _Kuroko needs to overcome this, too._ And he smiled at the idea he has in mind. "Oi, Kuroko."

Said girl looks up at the tallest guy among them with split-eyebrows. "What is it, Kagami-kun?"

"I challenge you to match, Kuroko," Kagami grins. "Whoever buys the Iberian Pork sandwich first wins. If you win, you'll get the privilege to ask me everything you want, and I won't ever complain." The idiot trio are now confused at what Kagami's trying to do.

On the other hand, what the tiger said made Kuroko fired up immediately, her eyes brimming with determination. "Alright, Kagami-kun, I accept your challenge."

"I like your enthusiasm!" Kagami snorts. "However, if I win, you have to—"

The tiger didn't get to finish his line since Kuroko dashed straight for the cafeteria. All the four of them were dumbfounded at Kuroko's sudden darting.

"Wh-wha?" Furihata and Fukuda both react late, still processing what just happened. As if it wasn't enough that Kuroko behaved out of the ordinary (outside a game, at least), the girl was also completely out of sight—in less than a second, too.

Kagami stood frozen. He didn't even get to say what he wants as reward for the challenge. _Damn you, Kuroko! Anyways, I can't just lose. _He thought, finally gaining his resolve and composure. "Leave this to me, you guys." He says to the trio.

"Good luck Kagami!" Fukuda says, cheering for the tiger with split-brows who already darted for the crowd.

"W-wait…" Kawahara, their almost dying friend earlier, has finally gained consciousness—if he were unconscious earlier in the first place. "Wh-what's going on now…"

"Oh, Kawahara, you're awake." Furihata says in an uncaring manner, turning their bald friend's expression into a depressed one.

"Finally, Kawahara, you're done with your act." Fukuda adds, making the bald boy's face darker.

"Y-you guys…" Kawahara the bald boy says, depressed.

"Anyways, shouldn't we help them? Each of us is supposed to be doing something you know?" Furihata changes the subject subconsciously.

"Kagami and Kuroko-san had a bet. We can't interfere." Fukuda explains.

"E-eh? They did!?" Kawahara asks rhetorically. "Wait, if that's so, we really can't get in their way."

"You two… we won't get in the way no matter where I look!" Furihata states.

"Are you sure, Furi? If we get to buy the bread first, their bet will become void."

"That's exactly the point! There's no way we can get in their way when we can't even buy bread, you know."

Fukuda and Kawahara sweat-dropped. _So what's the point of helping? _The two said and thought in unison.

"AAAAAARGGGGHHHHH!" The three can hear Kagami screaming. It seems as though the tiger cannot actually get in further the crowd, and fell on his butt right after being pushed back by the crowd.

"Even Kagami can't do it… It's hopeless." The trio murmurs, in the brink of giving up.

"No, not yet!" Kagami bounces back up and tries again. Unfortunately, he just got pushed back again and fell on his butt for the second time.

For some reasons, he didn't give up, repeating the same cycle over and over again. And again. And again. And again. The trio knew—this has to stop. _Someone! SOMEONE, PLEASE! PLEASE HELP UUUUUS! _The three thought.

"Uh, excuse me." Says someone. All of the guys turn their heads to the person who said it, including Kagami.

Turns out, it was Kuroko. No one just comes to realize that it's her, alright. "I bought five Iberian Pork Cutlet bread. There's no change." After hearing this, the guys all looked the plastic bag she was holding. And boy, there really is so-called extraordinary bread. There was a moment of silence.

"Well, it's Kuroko-san's complete victory, I'd say." Kawahara comments. The other two of the pack nods in agreement.

"WHAT?" Kagami reacts, thunderstruck. Within a second he was right in front of Kuroko, grabbing her shoulders. "HOW?"

Kuroko looks up, trying to remember what happened. "The flow of the crowd pushed me to the front, so I got five breads and left some money on the counter."

They all sweat-dropped, except Kagami—he stood there frozen.

"That's the former phantom sixth man for you!" Furihata cheers on her.

"Thank you, Furihata-kun. But it's nothing to praise about, really." She says expressionless.

"Oh come on, don't act so modest! You won a bet against Kagami!" Fukuda adds. Now, Kagami feels even smaller.

"About that, I don't think I actually won."

"Huh?" Kagami finally reacts, his face still in frown.

"I have all the money with me. You couldn't have bought anything even if you got to the front."

"Oh." The three boys mutter.

"Idiot, I have some money on me. If ever, I could've just got it back easily by taking the money they handed to you." Kagami says without looking at Kuroko, head turned to the side, trying hard not to look like he's consoling her.

Kuroko looks down and thinks about what her teammate said. "Well, if you say so, then I guess it's my win."

Kagami's eyes settle at her, his head still at turned to the side, and becomes surprised at what he sees. _She looks more humble than usual, I wonder what happened? _Whether he's being sarcastic or not, no one knows.

* * *

"U-uhm, here Coach. Kuroko-san bought the bread." Fukuda hands the bread to Riko.

"Good work! Wait, what? Only Kuroko-chan!? Are you kidding me!? Just how gentlemanly can you freaking boys become, huh!?" Riko screeches, unleashing the monster within her. Good thing Izuki, Koganei, Mitobe and Tsuchida restrained her.

Hyuuga however, started giving off frightening aura. "I know I gave Kuroko-chan the money, but that doesn't mean I was leaving the entire job to her, you retards. Or did you need a little bit of a reminder, huh?" He started cracking his knuckles.

"EEEEEEEEK!" The trio hid behind Kuroko.

Before she could open her mouth, Kagami was already speaking. "We tried to help, but Kuroko was just really skilled in… uh… being invisible. So yeah, she got through the crowd."

"Oh, I see." The evil duo of Coach and Captain said unison, understanding the situation.

_That was easy. _The rest of the team thought in unison.

"So again, guys, good work! Here's some juice to accompany that special bread." The coach stretches a hand holding a plastic bag which seems to have packs of fruit juices in it.

"B-but, how about you guys?" Fukuda asks, somewhat puzzled. He thinks they were really asked to buy the bread as gophers.

"Go on, it's for you guys to eat." Izuki tells him reassuringly, smiling. Well, it's his pun earlier which caused the misunderstanding, so yeah, he's doing his best to clear it up.

All of the underclassmen looked somewhat surprised. They weren't gophers after all. "R-really?" Fukuda asks again, this time, looking at their captain.

"Of course. Don't hold back." Hyuuga assures him.

Fukuda turns to his first-year buddies. "Let's take turns. So who goes first?"

"It's gotta be Kuroko-chan, of course!" Kawahara makes a suggestion which no one opposes.

"Thanks for the food." Kuroko takes one bread from the bag and starts to bite on the extraordinary bread. Oh yes, indeed. It is indeed one of the best breads she's ever eaten. "This is incredibly delicious." She says in a rare happy expression. The trio is now convinced.

The three started chewing off the bread. They couldn't agree with Kuroko more, it really is incredibly delicious. Kagami still looked skeptic, but Kuroko just shoved the bread into his mouth. He didn't choke, though, he has huge throat, it was probably easy for him to swallow that bread at once. Well, not really, but…

After that, they all went their way to change into their practice attires.

"Kagami-kun." Kuroko calls out to the tiger.

"Yo," Kagami greets. "So, you're going to interrogate me immediately, huh?" Kagami says with a constipated face.

"Yes, is that bad?" She asks just to be polite.

"N-no."

"I see. I'll ask a question then." She declares. "Kagami, kun, when you looked for me back then, who did you found at the park with me?"

Kagami gave her an incredulous look. "Are you serious? You don't even remember that?"

She shakes her head a little.

"Well, Kise, and, uh… that Midorima guy…" Kagami says, thinking. He wasn't even sure if he pronounced the greenhead's name right.

Kuroko is a little disappointed. "I see. Akashi-kun didn't come after all." _Why did I even dream of something like that?_

Kagami gave her another incredulous look. "Idiot, that Akashi came! How could you forget!?" Whoa, is he secretly shipping Kuroko with Akashi? "When I tried to get you, he actually aimed his scissors at me! He tried to kill me!" Oh. Unfortunately, he's not a shipper—he just felt bad because Kuroko didn't remember his almost-dying-scenario. Poor guy.

And the memories automatically came back to Kuroko—making her murmur an, "Oh," with the blankest face you can imagine. _How could I forget an event so weird like that?_ She thought, quite disappointed at herself.

The only fabricated memory she had was the part when the whole Seirin team got to witness Akashi hired a hitman to destroy Midorima's printer, which in her dream, appeared to be his lucky item for the next day. And then her pun-lovin' senpai did something embarassing... Well, yeah, if she's gonna sum it up, it was quite a hilarious and silly dream.

So this is what _actually_ happened: she went with Kise and Midorima to a nearby street basketball court to talk about something, when suddenly, the redhead former captain of Teiko appeared out of nowhere. Said redhead was about to do something crazy to the greenhead who looked like he was flirting with Kuroko when suddenly...

"KUROKO!" Kagami the Americanized idiot screams throughout the whole place which made four different-colored heads turn to his direction. Midorima felt like he was saved for a moment there.

"Heh?" Akashi emphasized the pretend surprise in his voice. "Why is this plebeian I've never heard of shouting your name so shamelessly, Tetsuna?" His tone suddenly changed into a one with killing intent. No shit.

Before Kagami could even react violently, Kuroko beat him to it. "Akashi-kun, please don't call Kagami-kun a plebeian, because he isn't one." She says, more serious than before.

The green, yellow, and red-haired somewhat felt at a loss… and just when they were about to ask why she is defending the boy with ugly hairdo, Kuroko interjects, "He lived in America before, he seems to be living in an expensive apartment, and he always buys about fifty pieces of cheeseburgers everyday. I believe he's not fit to be called a plebeian."

_She took it literally_. Kagami, Kise and Midorima thought, sweat-dropping.

The redhead just sighed a little. "Really, Tetsuna, and I thought you were trying to defy me… I almost had the urge to kill him." He smiles dangerously.

Kuroko mimicked Akashi's sigh. "Really, Akashi-kun, do you even know what happens after you kill someone? Or what to do even?"

Kise and Midorima's eyes widened comically. _Why is Kuroko/Kurokocchi doing this? Does she want the world to end already!?_ They both thought. And when they turned to the redhead, however, he looked unsure. _Wait, what?_

Akashi's eyes widened like that of a cat. Poor guy—he has always been so sure, but right now, he's not really sure about things. And the rest of the boys there, including Kagami, yes, were looking smug for a moment.

_Did Kuroko just save my ass? _Kagami thought. Well, not really, but she defended him, that's for sure.

_Way to go, Kurokocchi! _Kise thought, high-jabbing mentally.

_Serves you right, Akashi. _Midorima thought, pushing his glasses up.

The three looked smug, really, thinking: how come they're so scared of Akashi when they are actually taller than him? And just then, those three felt a glare with killing intent, which sent chills to their spines.

_Those taller than me should just die already. Wait, what was Tetsuna trying to say? How should I answer her question? Wait, it might be rhetorical. Ah, no, probably not._ Just as the redhead's thoughts were about to compile like paperwork, a thought invaded his mind. _Tetsuna, really surprises me in many ways. _He mentally smiled. Oh, and that whirlwhind of thoughts by the redhead only lasted 0.1 second. No kidding.

Akashi cleared his throat. "So it's three, huh." He said, smirking. "Sorry—Kagami, but I can only handle two at the moment. So leave." He said with a delay, probably because he tried to remember what Kuroko called the guy.

Kagami was kind of confused; _two, three_? He wondered what the redhead was blathering about, but he refused to back down. "Hah? Sorry, but I'm going to bring Kuroko with me no matter what."

"Oh, is that so?" The redhead smirked, and was about to attack him with his scissors when—

"Just give up, idiot." Midorima finally said to Kagami. Come to think of it, this is the first time he talked to him! For some reasons, the tsundere would prefer not to talk to someone he hasn't met formally yet, but yep, he couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to tell him that he's an idiot all this time.

"Haaaah!? And who the heck are you!?" Kagami retorted. "Just so you know, I can't leave without Kuroko!"

"EH? DID YOU JUST SAY CAN'T _LIVE _WITHOUT KUROKOCCHI!? YOU CLOSET PERVERT KAGAMICCHI!" Kise blew up.

"WH-WHA? PERVERT? KAGAMICCHI?"

Midorima pushes his glasses back up, sighing again. "Kise, he said _leave _as in depart_, _not _live _as in survive_._ Clean your ears sometimes, idiot."

Kise sweat-dropped. "Clean my ears? I didn't even mishear him, Midorimacchi! It was him who has problems with pronunciation!"

Midorima sighs again. "I see, you're just utterly stupid, why did I actually try to give you assistance? How wrong of me."

A huge vein appeared on Kise's face. "I told you alright! It's this guy named Kagamicchi with funny eyebrows' fault!"

"HAH?" Kagami's face was covered with veins.

Kuroko, who was standing just right where she was observing the idiots, was not amused. She probably knew how this will end. _Akashi-kun will probably—_

"ENOUGH." The dangerous redhead of Rakuzan couldn't take it any longer. "HOW DARE YOU BICKER SO NONCHALANTLY IN MY PRESENCE?"

Heck, Kuroko was right. Aaaaaand the scissor-throwing began after that, which wounded Kagami's left cheek. The ripe and unripe mango duo was unscathed.

* * *

"…"

"You remember now?" Kagami asked the blank-faced lady, sighing.

"Yes." Kuroko replies. "What happened after that, Kagami-kun?"

"Well, you ran to my aid and threatened to beat Akashi."

"I-I did?" Kuroko reacts suddenly. _I did that? _She thought, feeling embarrassed. It's really out-of-character for her to suggest to kick other people's asses.

That was the first time Kagami heard her stutter, like seriously. "Well, yeah, you threatened to beat him a basketball match."

"O-oh."

_Damn, what's with this girl?_ Kagami thought, and without thinking he suddenly pronounces, "First, you asked me questions as if you had amnesia. Second, you bought that stupid bread without effort. And now… you… you're stuttering…" There was a slight pause, and then he continued. "You're really overwhelming a lot of people, you know."

Kuroko gave him a faint smile. "Sorry."

"Anyways, you can't beat Akashi without going through the intense practice later."

"Oh, right."

"We have to hurry, we can't be late."

"Of course."

The two started sprinting to the locker rooms. Indeed, they can't be late for practice. Who knows what the punishments are going to be.

Kuroko stops sprinting, remembering something. "Kagami-kun!"

Said guy stops his stride, and turns to the owner of the voice. "What!?"

"If you won the bet, what would you have asked for?"

Kagami was taken back. Now he is puzzled. _Is she asking 'cause she remembered, or did she felt guilty 'cause she avoided hearing it? _He shakes his head afterwards, and smiled a little. _It's probably the first one._

"You actually remembered, huh?"

"Sorry, I feel guilty because I avoided hearing you out, Kagami-kun." She bows her head as a sign of apology.

Kagami's eyes widened. "O-oh." _I was wrong there._

There was a moment of silence.

"It was nothing important. Don't worry about it." Kagami tries to dismiss the conversation.

"But, I'd feel guilty if you don't tell me now."

_This girl... Take a hint!_ He mentally retorted, closing his eyes. He sighs, opening one of his eye, looking at her. "I was going to ask you to eat more burgers next time we eat at Maji's, that's all. You drink too much vanilla shake that it sickens me."

That was unexpected, well, for Kuroko at least. "Alright Kagami-kun. I will eat more burgers next time." She gives him another faint smile.

The tiger was again taken aback. "Y-yeah. That's good."

"See you later."

"See you later."

Kuroko Tetsuna, on her way to the lockers, thought about what happened after the scissor-throwing. She didn't fail to notice the saddened smile the redhead captain of Rakuzan gave her when she ran to Kagami's aid. Now, the expression on her face looks so conflicted.

_Why would Akashi-kun make an expression like that? _She bit her lip, feeling all her frustration penting up. She sees it all vividly_—_the sad smile, and after that, he just walked past them wearing his usual commanding expression, and told her that he's looking forward to how their plan—no, how _his_ plan will turn out. It was as if that ''sad'' smile was just a lie.

_Why is Akashi-kun always trying to confuse, me? Why? _She feels a pang on her chest. _It hurts..._

* * *

**A/N: I'M SO SORRY GUYS! TT_TT I broke my promise that I'd update TWICE last March! I was infected by a disease called writer's block and yes, busy with school work and FINALS was like HELL, seriously! In the past few days I got busy with other stuff, and yeah, I've only finished half of this chapter today.**

**That was a quite sad way to end the chapter, but sometimes I have to add sad scenes too, I think. XD From now on I'd only be replying to my dear readers' questions and answer it in a Q&amp;A format~**

**I'll be updating soon again~ Thanks so much for everyone who followed and favorited this fic! And to my readers who are always, always reviewing (you guys know who you are), really, really, I'M GRATEFUL TO YA'LL! **

**Thanks so much for all your support! :) Please leave a review~ I really feel energized reading them. Feel free to give constructive criticism as well. I'd be striving to improve as much as possible. ;)**

**See ya all again in the next chapter. Sore ja.**


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